Online dating also referred to as internet dating is a dating system which allows couples individuals and groups to contact each other, communicate to each other through the internet. Online dating is primarily concerned with establishing personal, sexual or even romantic relationships. Internet dating take place through the use of personal cell phones and computers, where basically through the internet, they match make people in an immoderate manner. Currently, thousands of people have turned to online dating where for countries such as a the united states tens of millions of people access the online dating services daily to find spouses or dates.
Internet dating match people properly by using market metaphors. So the sites will allow people to upload their photos and in turn they are able to browse other people photos. Depending on the nature of the site, the site offers additional services for instance online chat, webcasts, message board and telephone chat. In some of the online dating site the registration is free, though they require their customers to pay some fee for other services.
The extents to which the matching algorithm works have been a major topic that have attracted a lot of concern.. The reason behind this exercise is because they realised that the dating sites were collecting individual data from different people, crunch these numbers and match people with others. It has there been of many people’s interest to establish how well a mathematical formula can be used to identify pairs of single individuals who there is a probability of forming a long lasting relationship.
The scholars and other researcher who have tried to give an answer to this question have not been successful in their efforts. They argue that the dating site have not been able to disclose the algorithm they use. The researchers are of the opinion that after 80 years of their scientific research, the probability of the dating sites to claim that they have the capacity to match make people is zero. Another issue that questions the credibility of the dating sites is the amount of information that the internet dating site gather from the prospective customers (Scientific American mind, pg 59)
The facts have it that these sites collect very little information that is crucial about an individual. Since they gather information from singles who have never met, the site cannot prove that they people the match make will be able to interact with one another. The dating site are questionable since research has it that some crucial information such as problem solving tendencies, communication patterns and sexual compatibility are very essential in determining whether any relationship will succeed or fail.
It also occurs that the dating site do not factor in some other issues for example the environment that the relationship is found to be. The prospective partners may be experiencing hardships for instance financial crisis, job loss, illness infertility among other issues. It therefore occurs that when couple encounter unexpected hardships and stress of such kind, the satisfaction they get from the relationship will start diminishing and with time it the risk of the relationship breaking down is relatively high. Another issue that have been raised to question the authenticity of the online dating sites is the kind of information about the individual that is collected. The online dating site in most cases concentrate on individual information which happens to be just a small piece of what can be termed as necessary for people to be able to form a long term relationship. As a matter of fact, some of the characteristics determine the well being of a relationship. For example, it have been established that people who are in most cases emotionally volatile have had troubled relationships. People who were ill treated in their tender age are also said to have issues worth their relationships.
It is also the case with the persons who abuse alcohol and other drug; it has been proved without reasonable doubt that drugs and substance abuse impact negatively on relationships. It is therefore unfortunate that the dating sites after identifying these persons throw the answers that they give will not remove them from their pool. This is because the online dating site will be afraid of losing their customers and therefore their returns will decline. The dating sites are also known to promise to provide to their customers a large pool of potential mates. Their promise to their prospective customers is that they have the capacity to identify specific traits from other strangers such that the two strangers will mesh up very properly to form a long term relationship (Gibson, pg 213)
The sites rationale of matchmaking people is identifying people with similar characteristics and matching them. Their point of argument is that person with similar characteristics are likely to match far match better than person who differ in characteristics. The online dating site still uses other different approaches in matching prospective partners. It have been put forward that the dating services that takes place through the internet use psychological variable for instant personality and attitudes to match people. The dating sites therefore match introverts with other introverts and extroverts with the extroverts. In such a case, the assertion would not stand the test of the times since such an attempt would be faulty since similarities of that nature are not an assurance that a successful relationship will be created.
Another school of thought have give their views on the same issue where they argue that similarity of attitude and other personal traits between individual have little or no impact on the relationships well being. A deep analysis indicates that even if there are similarities in personality dimensions in a major way, for instance impulsivity, extroversion and neuroticism, it only had influence on spouses satisfaction on a very small portion of individual at around 0.5 percent. The largest proportion is one that similarity in psychological personalities does not influence their satisfaction in marriages in any way (GRAY, Pg. 12)
Deception occurs at lights speed in online dating services. Prospective lovers lie drastically on the sites about their personal information such as age, parental and marital status, profession and income. A very high percent of online dating personal information is actually lies. Men are commonly associated with deception in income, education level, marital status age and height. Women are known to deceive in a major way where they are required to disclose their weight, age, and physical appearance. To explain the rationale for the falsehood, some research was carried out that showed that people could just say anything they felt like saying as they were enabled by the nature of the communication that computer mediated communication. People therefore use screen name rather than their real names.
Among one of the reason why deception is occurring is the poor odds and the high hopes that people are getting from the advertisement from the internet dating site. For instant, the material on the major dating site show that a great number of Americans have successfully found their partners from the dating services. Online dating is both beneficial and at the same time it has some detrimental effects. To start with, it have been established that online dating is a threat to monogamy as partners are finding other partners through the dating sites. It has made people to be less committed in their marriages where partners are not ready to resolve conflicts together.
Online dating has some advantages that come with it. Through online dating, lovers get to know each other better. They get to know what they like, what their attitudes toward certain thing and the stand on important issues that form the basis of a long lasting union. In addition to that, online dating help people save money. Unlike a real life date where some costs must be factored in, in internet dating there are no major costs that are incurred.
Another advantage that is associated with online dating is the fact that through online dating one is able to be and remain you. This is so because people do not feel pressured to impress their partner as it is in real life dates. In a situation where the date does not work out well for an individual, the individual can graciously back out. This is unlike in real life date where the individual have a feeling of awkwardness. When partners through online dating are ready to meet each other, the experience is wonderful since they know each other well and they can communicate as though they have know each other for a long time. The partners feel comfortable and at ease, and they are chances that they have met the soul mate they have been looking for. Online dating has been proved to be as well beneficial since young people have had a chance of getting their life time partners through these dating sites.
In conclusion, we can confidently establish that online dating can be a terrific tool to meet your partner. Online dating algorithm is questionable as it does not give the formula which it uses to math make people. Online dating has its con and pros and can work for you or against you. However it has been left for individuals to either use it for their good or evil purposes.
Work Cited
Scientific American mind, Jun2009 Special Issue, Vol. 20 Issue 3, p54-61..
Section SR; Column 0; Sunday Review Desk; GRAY MATTER; Pg. 12
Gibson, Rachel. Sex, Lies, and Online Dating. New York: Avon Books, 2006. Print.
