Online Dating Research Paper

Online Dating: Modern Real Relationships Made With Technology

Alesha Norris

Wharton County Junior College

August 2014Page Break

Abstract

The internet was the start of a fascinating world that many people once thought could only exists in their dreams. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, technology has been on a never ending high. According to Rosenwald (2014), the dating sites emerged in the mid-1990's. Internet dating sites are multi-million pound industry that are still growing (Paul, R., Chung, L.; 2010). Online dating started off with targeting the older singles audience. However, divorced, single, elderly, and even young people have hovered to the online dating scene. Now, the online dating world has expanded

Since the break through of advanced technology and international communication available on smartphones, people have become more and more dependent on technology. Though it may seem to be an untraditional way of finding a soul mate, many people have found this method to be more reliable. Online dating has also become so popular that nearly a quarter of online daters met a spouse or long-term partner through a dating website. Online dating has many positive and negative aspects associated with it. The upside of online dating is that users get to know more about someone just by looking at their profile, whereas not knowing much about someone they meet at a party or a bar (Tillotson; 2014). Therefore, the stranger at the party, whom they know nothing about, has a chance to inspire a spark of chemistry. However, the downside of this is that people as a whole tend to stick to their tribe and feel the need to place people in an incompatible setting because they might not be on the same political party. There are many risks and rewards that come with online dating, such as limited online censorship, unfortunate deceitful profiles, and a chance to escape from the judgmental world that various people have become awfully familiar

In fact, recent study called 'First Comes Social Networking, Then Comes Marriage?' found that close to twenty-one percent of people who discovered their spouses online and got married between 2005 and 2012 met through social-networking sites, which represented about the same amount of people who met offline through school (Rosenwald). No matter what outlook users have on online dating, the profiles just keep growing bigger and bigger. Page Break

References

Julia Prodis Sulek San Jose Mercury News "Modern relationships made, marred, mended by technology." McClatchy - Tribune News Service. 2013, November 27

Kristin Tillotson Star Tribune (Minneapolis) "For Daniel Jones, love is a many-splintered thing." McClatchy - Tribune Business News. 2014, May 16

Murad Ahmed, Murad Ahmed Technology Reporter "Online dating sites 'must do more to protect women from predators' [Eire Region]." Times of London. 2013, September 09: 24.

Allison Taylor "'Beware the online catfish'." Independent - London. 2014, May 24: 47.

Paul, R., Chung, L. (2010, March 01). Brave New Cyberworld: The Employer's Legal Guide to the Interactive Internet. Computer and Internet Lawyer, (3), 1, Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

Michael S Rosenwald "Online dating's bluebird of happiness." Washington Post. 2014, June 09: