Remember how dating worked before the invention of the Internet? If your answer is “no”, then you are either very young, or you got lucky and married your childhood or high school sweetheart. However, if your answer is “yes,” then you know that the dating process goes something like this: two people meet in a public place, introductions and small talk ensue, and one of them proposes a more formal, romantic encounter in the future. Maybe it’s dinner or a movie, but regardless of the date, and if this encounter continues and both parties develop romantic feelings, they’re “on a date.”
Well, the first step in the process—the initial introductions—used to happen in person in places like bars, coffee shops, parks, or blind date arrangements which were always awkward. Basically, any place where people congregate can double as a place for singles to hang out with each other and potentially set up dates. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still possible, and it does happen, not that often. Public places are no longer an option for singles to start their journey into the dating world. So where do they go to find love? Well, they go where people go to find just about anything in life—the Internet.
Dating Sites And Social Media
With the invention of the Internet came the invention of online dating sites, where people could create personal profiles and narrow their search based on the specific qualities they were looking for in a partner. Dating sites act as a go-between in relationship building, and it takes the burden off of having to go out and find a date. The reason this site continues to be successful is because they basically do all the work for you, and they match you with people based on compatibility. By the time you date in person with someone you met online, you already know you are a perfect match, rather than going on a date only to find out you have nothing in common.
Dating sites revolutionized the idea of relationships, and then social media came along and stole the show. On sites like Myspace and Facebook, people share so much information about themselves that their profiles are almost identical to those of online dating sites. People use social media sites to find other singles in their area, learn more about their history, strike up conversations, and hopefully form connections that can lead to in-person dating.
It seems crazy to think that people could meet and eventually marry all thanks to something as trivial as social media, but statistics don’t lie. In fact, one in three newly married couples met online, and 55% of these couples met on social media sites. What’s more interesting is that couples who met online were actually happier and less likely to divorce than couples who met in a traditional way.
It’s safe to say that the Internet, and social media sites in particular, have completely changed the way people communicate. Be it a simple friendship, or a deeper romantic relationship, people have realized that finding a perfect match is much easier by making use of the various tools offered to us by the world wide web.
Brenda Williamson is a blogger from Portland, OR. He specializes in writing about online dating and social media sites.
