Does Meeting Online Lead to Happier, More Enduring Marriages?

Professor John Cacioppo from the University of Chicago performed a study to determine if “Meeting online lead to happier, more enduring marriages”. Cacioppo conducted a national survey for 19,121 individuals married between 2005 and 2012 based on marital satisfaction, degree of affection, communication, and love for each other. The survey was conducted online and by telephone with the help and funding of eHarmony to find the married demographic. Cacioppo discovered there was a lot of diversity in the cumulated data and that one-third of marriages start with online dating websites. A foundation for communicating came from social networks, email, instant messages, and multi-player video games. Cacioppo concluded 45 percent of married couples met through an online dating site, were between the ages of 30-39, and had higher marital satisfaction and a lower rate of divorce. Results showed there was a higher marital satisfaction because there are more opportunities to find a significant other online, and people that met on dating websites had the chance to screen their potential match. Online studies showed that people were more likely to be honest about themselves except about age and weight. The 65 percent of married couples who met offline met at work, school, bars, clubs, or religious gatherings. Majority of people who met offline at bar or blind dates had a higher divorce rate of 7.6 percent, while majority of people who met online through virtual communities had a lower divorce rate of 5.64 percent.

Princeton University performed a study on “Americans’ use of the internet on online dating and relationships”. The survey was conducted by telephone between the dates of April 17 to May, 19, 2013 on 2,525 American adults over the age o...

... middle of paper ...

...sity education, and live in an urban area and they are looking for a long-term relationship, find a marriage partner, or find a sexual partner. The survey showed that one third of people have not met face-to-face, but two thirds have met between 1 to 5 different people. There is always a risk when meeting people because one fourth of individuals have misrepresented themselves online mostly by lying about their age and height. The data showed 635 of daters have had sex with at least one other person they met face-to-face, 60 percent made a long-term friendship, 27 percent met a person they had a long-term relationship with, and 35 percent met someone they married.

Works Cited

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/05/31/1222447110.full.pdf http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Online-Dating/Summary-of-Findings.aspx http://www.bestsoftworks.com/docs/loveonline.pdf