Online Romance Epidemic

As an aspiring business-oriented Internet junkie, the thought of developing an online dating site impulsively emerged from my feral mind. It was just only early this year that I appreciated the potential of the World Wide Web as a venue to be creative and productive. Likewise, it proves to be a lucrative source of income to those who desire to work at the comfort of their homes, just as I envision myself a few years from now.

It all started in 1727, when a lonesome spinster from Manchester, England, Helen Morrison, placed the first ever lonely-hearts advertisement in a local newspaper, the “Manchester Weekly Journal”. However, the town mayor responded to this by committing her to a lunatic asylum for a month. Indeed, a pathetic mean to get noticed in the olden times. On the lighter note, she was the pioneer of an ever-booming dating ideology. During mid 60’s, and just a few miles away, the “Beatles” recorded “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Eleanor Rigby”. They had half of the world singing to Helen Morrison’s dilemma.

In the late 90’s, the explosion of online dating services has created a new way for lonely hearts to wait at the window–of their computer–, looking for true love. For people who are lucky with their love life, it might sound funny and awkward. But eventually, it has revolved as years go by many success stories unfold infront of our very own eyes. This can be proven by the massive existence of dating sites, sprouting like mushrooms, and the steep competition amongst them. As part of entrepreneurship, this also ascends the market of online media and marketing companies.

According to Neilsen/NetRatings, the leading provider of Internet research, in its August 2005 survey, one out of three Internet users would now use the web to meet a potential partner in life. Considerably, online dating is the third most popular method of getting a date (33%), as preceded by a tie between “meeting through friends” and “going to pubs/clubs” (both 53%).

Amongst men and women, it is the latter (54%) that are more likely to be looking for friendship or shared interest than the former (39%). Men are more likely to be looking for long-term relationships, intimate relationships, short term relationships (at 46%) or marriage than women (42%).

Seventy-four percent (74%) says that the primary deciding factor to contact someone from a dating site is the physical appearance as shown in the pictures posted therein. This is followed by the quality of the profile description (70%). This is a clear indication that since there is plenty of fish in the sea; people might as well be superficial and shallow, in clicking that “I like you” icon. The financial or income factor is immaterial and comes as the ninth placer (5%) out of ten.

But beware, 33% admitted of lying to some degree in their profiles. Men are more honest to some extent as compared with the women. Women are fond of polishing profiles, and are just innately creative.

Internet dating is proving a much more successful way to find long-term romance and friendship for thousands of people that were previously thought, new research shows. Don’t fret. Old-fashioned romance is not dead yet. However, Internet dating is here to stay. It is continually growing and evolving. Here are some advantages and disadvantages to consider whether to jump into the sack or not.

Advantages

• Setting of preferences. It provides access to a large number of different types of people to meet in every geographical location.
• No friends needed. You can access a dating site seven days a week but finding friends to go out with every night could be difficult and going out alone isn’t easy-especially for women
• Less costly. The costs of going out, dining, and hanging out with friends are more than that of a month’s subscription to a dating site.
• Greater anonymity of writing and using the telephone. Some people are just so shy and aloof in making the first move or flirting in real setting.
• Meeting people outside your circle. This is true to very busy people who never seem to have time to date and get noticed in the dating arena.
• No big deal on big age gaps. Older men can choose from an array of younger women (which can be younger to be their granddaughter), with no problem at all.

Disadvantages

• Addictive. You can get hung up on Internet flirting as a short-term remedy for loneliness and boredom.
• One-sided. Our instinct about a person is based not just on what ideas they want to communicate, but on appearance, body language, facial expressions and tone of voice.
• Limited. It is limiting in the sense that you’ll only be meeting folks who spend time on the Internet, which excludes a whole raft of people.
• Getting scammed. If you are e-dating somebody very far, you are susceptible to scamming, particularly, ripping you off with your money.

 

By far, online dating is an embodiment of the increasing openness of people getting romantically involved with people outside their skin-color or land-area. It can be a tool to bridge the unresolved gap between races and nationalities, if not abused and misused.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 15th, 2006 at 01:25 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.