How The Internet Has Changed Dating
By Kara Pound. Posted on .
In 1995, the government agency that placed restrictions on the Internet’s ability to carry commercial traffic was decommissioned. This meant if you could afford a computer and monthly service, you could have the Internet in your home.
Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has had a tremendous impact on culture and commerce including email, instant messaging, video calls and online dating.
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Yes, since gaining popularity since the early 2000s, online dating has revolutionized the way many women look at dating.
There are pros and cons to finding a mate via the World Wide Web. Let’s take a look at the good and the bad when it comes to meeting Mr. Right online.
Con:
People are becoming less social.
Instead of going out to bars and signing up for co-ed gardening clubs, you’re sitting around on your couch while answering emails from the five dating sites you have memberships to.
One problem with the Internet is women are becoming lazy — favoring virtual relationships over good ol’ person-to-person contact.
Pro:
You can weed out more bad seeds. Before you decide to meet a man in person, you can read through his profile and communicate online in order sort through the undesirables.
This doesn’t guarantee every date will be a home run, but at least you won’t waste a really hot dress and the time it took you to shave your legs for a guy who lives with his parents and didn’t pass the seventh grade.
Con:
Less privacy. If a man knows your first and last name, then he has the ammunition needed to do some reconnaissance.
By simply Googling a date, anyone can learn where you work, if you have a police record, your address, your Facebook profile and anything else floating around on the information super highway.
What are some of your pros and cons when it comes to how the Internet has changed the way we anticipate and participate in dating?
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When in doubt, remember what Judsen Culbreth wrote in “The Boomer’s Guide to Online Dating."
“One of the strengths of Internet dating is that it's anonymously impersonal, which helps take the sting out of rejection. If you're interested in someone who notices your profile or you're intrigued by a computer-generated match, let the email begin. If you're not interested, delete the email with about the same level of remorse you'd feel from dumping jellyfish overboard.”
