7% In U.S. Have Rekindled Love Using The Internet
People use the internet to find past lovers and stay in touch with their loved ones, says a study.
Seven percent of people in the United States have rekindled a romantic relationship with the help of the internet, according to a new study. Re-establishing contact with a long-lost love can be pretty intense—just ask Teri L. Waine. Her high school boyfriend found her on Facebook and with him came a flood of old memories. But the United States doesn't stand out when it comes to rehabilitating hook-ups from the past. The world-wide average was 14%. The country with the most internet-inspired love renewals? India. A full 37% of Indians say the web has helped them renew a past love.
These numbers come from the 2009 Norton Online Living Report, which came out on March 17. The study was commissioned by Symantec, the people who make the Norton anti-virus software. This is the second year they've done the report, which surveys 9,000 kids and adults in 12 countries (the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, China, Japan, India, Australia and Brazil). The report focuses on a few major areas: how technology impacts relationships, how families and children use the internet, and, since it's a Norton report, web security trends.
Some more interesting findings:
On average, 20 percent of people flirt online. (This jibes with a recent Pew Internet and American Life report in which 20% of people report using Facebook to flirt.) India and Brazil are the biggest online coquettes, coming in at 30 percent each.
68% of people say that the internet improves relationships.
78% of adults use technology to stay in touch with their spouse or partner. This includes cell phones, text messages, IMs and social networking sites. (We're surprised it's not more, since cell phone use seems to be so widespread.) Chinese people are the most likely to stay connected this way—87 percent say they do. Eighty-one percent of folks in the US do so. Surprisingly, Canadians are at the bottom of this list—only 62 percent of Canadians use tech innovations to stay in touch with their sweeties.
Love Buzz has used the internet to stay in touch with our partners. One of our boyfriends was recently in Asia, and we video-chatted using Skype. How do you use technology to connect with your honey?
Discussion
Id have to say i kind of agree with this article. I actually found my husband on the internet lol , as silly as it sounds i met him through MYSPACE. We've been married for almost 3 years.
I have also rekindled a past relationship on the internet. A friend i once had feelings for, lost and found again through the internet. I still talk to my friend and our bond is closer that ever. We finally met this week after a 3 year online friendship.
Dear Ms. Harrison,
This survey has no validity whatsoever.
I am a psychology professor and the international research expert on reunited lost loves for 16 years. I have written the only empirical books and journal articles on this issue.
No real researcher would ever expand survey results from a sample of Internet users they polled to everyone in a country! Maybe, somewhere, a journalist misinterpreted their conclusions and now everyone is quoting the misquote - that's happened to me a lot - but this "result" makes no sense at all.
Yes, some people are interested in lost loves, but not most. And of those, some will look up a lost love, but not most. And only some of these people use the Internet to do so.
There is more about lost love research at Lostlovers.com. The survey quoted here may have shock appeal, this sample of people is meaningless.
