Is Online Dating a Success or Fail?

When people use to hear online dating they thought it was crazy, risky, and even unsafe. As we move into a more accepting and free society it became more popular. Everyone now a days is online dating. One reason could be because they are scared or shy and want to get more comfortable with a person before they meet them. Another could be because people are always busy and schedules are so hectic. Also online dating is just so easy to access because there are so many different websites and apps and you can access them on almost any device. Since we are in an age where technology is so important it just seems like a commonplace to do it online. We learned about some studies in class that said that we tend to like people more when we meet them online. The internet makes it really easy to interact with someone you know very little about. It’s called the “Strangers on the Train Phenomena” which means that it is easier to talk to someone when you do not know them. I believe this to be true. If I find someone who I do not know attractive it’s hard for me to talk to them, but I can message them on face book and talk to them on Facebook. I just feel like when you talk to someone online they do not know who you are and if you get rejected then you don’t have to see that person and it won’t be awkward. I have never actually tried to online date because it seems weird and you usually have to pay for it. I think that online dating is for older people and it would be weird for someone as young as me, 19 ears old) to try to find a life partner on a dating website.  I honestly don’t know if online dating even works. It is crazy to think that someone can have a long lasting relationships with a person they met on the internet. There have been many studies to prove that it does work but how can we know this for sure. In an online article in The Washington Post written by Caitlin Dewey, Dewey writes to explain that we just do not know if online dating works because there are so many factors to be considered and so many studies that either qualify or disqualify each other. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/09/30/does-online-dating-work-lets-be-honest-we-have-no-idea/It seems that we can never get a straight answer to this simple question. Furthermore, one thing that we must clearly define is relationship success. This is one point that the article expounds on. This definition seems to be the problem that trips us up when studying online dating. Different studies have different definitions of what a successful relationship is. Also people have different definitions of what a successful relationship is. For me, it is a life-long commitment to one person where we live happily married and in harmony, of course there will be arguments along the way, but for the most part we can be with each other until we die. Additionally, one would have to consider the function of the site itself. Is it a hook up site? Is it for long lasting relationships? Is it just a personality matcher? It also hard to determine what caused the relationship to fail or succeed. You can ask where they just not compatible? Was it because they met online and not in person. Did they know enough about each other? The article asks about “the place where the couple met? And the length of time they took getting to know each other?”

                I think that we will always live in a world where this question will go unanswered because everybody is different. There are so many variables that play into the dating game. I say do what you want, take risks, live life, and have fun just becareful because you never really know someone like you think you do.