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How Has The Internet Changed Dating?

Internet Dating

Dating today and dating about two decades ago are two very different processes. In yester years, one had to actively get the attention of their would-be partner and put their very best foot forward if they ever hoped to get the telephone number or address of their crush.

To begin with, one had to actually meet their crush in person in order for any form of noticing to actually happen. Fast forward to today and the process of dating, like many other things in today’s life, has become one of convenience. Thanks to the internet, we are able to interact with each other from the comfort of our homes, even when in a relationship.

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The influence of the internet on the dating process is both a good and a bad thing. While it works to bridge the numerous socio-cultural as well as geographical barriers that plagued the previous dating process, it brings with it a level of impersonality.

With the internet comes online dating sites and other social media sites such as Tinder and Facebook. The latter have been created to ease interactions between people regardless of race, creed or geographical location while the former’s sole purpose is to help people find love.

Online dating services are pretty much the successors of lonely-hearts columns on the dailies. However, they have effectively taken away the mystery and excitement of meeting and discovering who your partner really is. With dating and other social media cites, people actively put up bits and pieces of information about themselves and their lives. For some, social media has become their online diary.

Internet Dating

To get to know people, one simply has to find a potential partner with the ideal set of qualities online and simply check out their profiles. Even for people who are not as active on these online platforms, a simple scroll through their profiles will tell you who they are (name that is), what they do for a living, where they live, their likes and dislikes and some of their favorite things to do. Basically, what might have made for two or three dates worth of conversation has just been laid bare for all to see.

The traditional dating process revolved primarily around those we knew. People we ended up dating and, or even marrying were almost always introduced to us by friends or family. Dating was a very familiar affair. It is for this reason that the diversity on or choice of partners was often limited.

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Those in our circles who knew us well always introduced us to people they thought we would have things in common with or were ‘good’ for us. According to social scientists Ortega and Hergovich of the University of Essex and Vienna respectively, it is for this reason that we ended up with people much like ourselves.

In today’s dating scene, people who would have slim to no chances of meeting in real life are now dating and getting married. With the internet, you can chat up someone in a completely different hemisphere from you. Thanks to the internet, people from different races and with different cultures are getting hitched.

There was a notable spike in the number of interracial marriages within just a few years of online dating cites coming into being. In the 2000s, interracial marriages have seen an increase of about 5 percent that can be directly attributed to the power of online dating cites.

Internet Dating

Another plus to having online dating cites have opened a whole new world to those who are shy. Minorities such as the LGBT communities are also reaping the benefits of these platforms. While the online world can be a rather harsh and brutal one, people have the shield that is anonymity.

One can easily hide behind a pseudo name or a different profile picture until they are certain they have built a strong enough connection with the other party to want to meet in person.

The internet has also made it possible for long distance relationships to become a thing. These tend to last a bit longer in this day and age thanks to the ability to communicate. Thanks to applications such as WhatsApp and Skype, people are able to communicate and video chat at a very affordable rate.

So long as you have an internet connection, you can stay in touch with the on goings of your loved ones at home as if you never left.

On the flip side, the internet has been blamed for the ruin of once wonderful relationships. The fear of missing out that is associated with social media platforms is one of the reasons for the internet being a ‘home-wrecker’.

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We often find ourselves glued to our mobile devices trying to keep up with that which is happening in the lives of friends and strangers. The immediate repercussions of these seemingly obsession with social media and the internet in general is the reduction of the attention we give our loved ones.

Another major negative attributed to the internet with regards to matters dating and love is its ability to increase chances of infidelity. With the traditional system of doing things, we were exposed to a limited number of people at any given time. Our social circles were linked in one way or the other.

This web of relationships, to some extent, kept us from straying out of our relationships. Fast forward and we have the internet, a tool through which you can meet people from anywhere at any time. Platforms such as tinder that allow you to connect with people with mutual interests by a simple swipe on your screen make it much easier for people within close proximity to each other to meet.

Internet Dating

While some connections have led to genuine and lasting love, a majority of these connections are fueled by lust. So, if say you or your partner have hit that boredom phase of the relationship and have someone much better looking and, or much more interesting to chat up on Tinder, then highest chances are that you will be more inclined to pay attention to and explore the possibilities presented to you online.

The online would does for a fact come with its benefit as far as dating is concerned. If used properly, then we could see a complete integration of cultures and races in the years to come. However, if used as a means to an end in order to fulfil our lust then it causes more harm than good to our love lives and general social interactions.

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How Has The Internet Changed Dating?

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