Special Order Coming Up!! (Week 8)

Going on match.com for the first time or to any dating site for that matter was actually pretty interesting. I always see the commercials for these dating services like EHarmony where they have testimonials of people who have actually “fallen in love”. As soon as I registered on match.com, it allowed me to play around with the filters and select what I wanted in a guy. It was kind of like putting an order for that “ideal guy”.  At first, the information that I entered had not retrieved any matches, so then I tried it again, but this time broadening the range on the search to at least 30 miles and it gave me 3 pages of potential profiles. While exploring these profiles, I decided to look at the profiles that were closest in range to me. I looked at a total of three profiles and all of them emphasized the reasons why they were on this site which was mainly that they didn’t have any time for “real” dating because of their job or other demands. Most of them had at least graduated from high school and some of them actually went on to college, one actually graduated from UCLA! Also these three that I viewed had traveled, which to me is amazing. Based on their profiles, I would consider dating them, however only after I met them in person and I would even be hesitant to do so. Most of the profiles that I browsed through seem very interesting and genuine in their search for their “other half”. One of them was really picky and even stated that even though he was Hispanic/Latin; he doesn’t “really want to date a Hispanic/Latin gal”. I mean on dating services like these, you have the opportunity to essentially “pick” what you want, but some are “highly selective” as Sautter, Tippett and Morgan state.

The internet dating service has increased significantly over the past years and even more so because it does “facilitate connections” and it “provides important insights about [the] presentation of self and identity” as Sautter et al argues. I do agree with the article in that there is a specific subpopulation of people that go on the internet and go on these dating services which is based on “sociodemographic factors, computer literacy and social network effects”. The impact of the use of internet use, specifically for internet dating, has becomes available and efficient as the article points us, but it is actually safe? What are the success rates of these couples formed through dating services? We would only know if others that we know have tried these and were successful. How do we know for sure that these people aren’t lying? Perhaps we can’t be sure until we meet them in person, but I must say that people are hesitant because it could be dangerous. There is still stigma associated with dating services for the reasons mentioned before, but also because it is seen negatively. The article mentions that  29% of people agree that “people who use online dating are desperate”, but I have to disagree with this because some people are actually pretty shy to meet new people or might not have the time to go out and signing up was more efficient, not necessarily desperate. Who knows, maybe signing up could change your life and meet new people who you would have never met otherwise.