Digital Dating Love at First Click

Although some people consider it risky to meet people from the internet,?many are leaning towards online dating and apps in hopes of finding their soulmate. Digital dating has easily become a more convenient and accessible approach for busy professionals to find true love. Digital dating can also lead to long-lasting love/marriage and allows for long distance love connections.

Online dating has easily become the second most common way for heterosexual American couples to meet and the most common way for homosexual American couples to meet (Lebowitz, 2017). The convenience and accessibility of digital dating is attracting busy professionals at an extremely high rate. Many busy professionals today are struggling to maintain work-life balance, so add trying to date into the equation and its merely impossible to do; that is until the age of digital dating. With digital dating, singles can choose from a plethora of websites or simply download an app to their phone and immediately gain access to hundreds, if not thousands, of other singles on a quest to find their true love.

Communicating through some sort of instant messaging app or web service is allowing singles to make connections with others simply by swiping. If the other dater is interested, the getting to know each other phase starts in hopes of finding out if there’s any kind of real connection. If and when the daters decide there is a possible connection, the fun can really start with an in-person date. From that point, it’s either a yay or nay in terms of in-person chemistry. There are some studies that are implying that couples who meet online have a higher chance of being compatible compared to couples that meet in person. While research doesn’t directly relate stronger relationships to online dating, it does suggest that people who register for dating services are likely more interested in a relationship.

To date, online dating still receives a lot of mixed reviews. Based on statistics supporting the growth of digital dating, there is no denying that dating sites and apps are an fundamental part of single life. The annual revenue in the online dating industry has surpassed $3 billion dollars (Matthews, 2017). Created in 1995, Match.com was the first online dating service. Since its creation, Match.com now serves 25 countries in 8 different languages and ranks 648 out of US sites on the Alexa traffic ranking (Alexa Internet, 2018). Currently, singles on dating sites and apps can benefit from advance search features, online verification tools on some sites, and even broaden their search by utilizing international dating networks. A British study claims about half of British singles have never approached a fellow single in person asking for a date. Therefore, online dating can be a crutch, or saving grace, for singles that feel uncomfortable or not so confident about stepping to their crush. In 2017, The Knot surveyed more than 14,000 engaged or recently married individuals and reported that 19% of brides met their spouses online (Matthews, 2017). This is an increase from a 2015 poll that reported only 5%.

In the land of digital dating, many have begun to suspect that the users on these websites and apps are looking for nothing but a quick hookup, temporary fling, or even a rebound from a previous relationship that’s gone down the drain. Despite these assumptions, digital dating is still proving to produce success stories from members who have found long-lasting love and marriages. Based on statistics, dating apps are working, especially for those who are truly looking for a genuine connection. Tinder, Coffee Meets Bagel, and Bumble are three of the most popular apps suggested for singles (Drell, 2018). Coffee Meets Bagel and Bumble were both founded by women and both apps seem to market themselves as being female-friendly. Regardless of the app or website that singles are choosing, the main purpose is to connect people who’d likely never cross paths. While those connections are being made, some couples that meet online or through an app still dislike telling people how they actually met.

Some consider it awkward or afraid of judgment that may come from others. I can remember a time when online dating carried the stigma of being for people who were desperate for love or socially awkward individuals. Unfortunately, some still feel that way but as technology advances, it’s obvious that more and more people will realize and understand that digital dating can and does produce quality relationships. Online daters who marry are less likely to break up and are associated with slightly higher marital satisfaction than couples who met offline (Paul, 2017).

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