Professor Monica Whitty's Cyberspace Romance

In her essay, “Digital Dating: Desperation or Necessity?,” Christine Hassler defends online dating from the negative stigma associated with the trend. Despite negative opinion of those who meet their significant other online, Hassler discourages her readers from allowing potential shame result in missed opportunities. Due to the internet’s increased importance in forming connections, digital dating should be utilized as a tool for finding relationships and becoming acquainted with like-minded strangers. Critics can no longer interpret online dating as a last resort for desperate elderlies because of the ingenuity of recent websites (Hassler). Overall, Hassler’s definition of online dating as a tool accurately portrays its practicality; however, her essay does not fully describe the escalated use of the internet among singles or successfully depict its disadvantages, such as the bias she addresses.

Online dating has altered the process used for obtaining a romantic partner as well as has altered the process of compatibility matching. Online dating has created a new platform for meeting potential partners. Romantic relationships contribute to emotional well-being and individuals crave the intimate connections that are formed through their romantic partnerships; it is a fundamental part of human motivation. These dating sites have created a medium for potential partners to meet by alleviating the daunting task of conventional dating by solving the problems such as lack of access to potential partners, confronting potential partners regarding their romantic availability, and gathering the courage to approach strangers face to face (Finkel, Eastwick, Karney, Reis, & Sprecher, 2012).

Online dating is perhaps the fastest growing industry in this day and age. In 2016, over 50 million people in the United States had signed up for online dating sites, which bring in an annual revenue of around 2 billion. As the reach of the internet increases, so does the ability of businesses to find exactly what customers are looking for. Websites such Match.com, Eharmony, and Zoosk boast couples that met on their site and have been together for years, as well as their abilities to find “the one” just by answering a few questions. With numerous success stories and an international market, love seems guaranteed. However, only 20% of all relationships started online stay committed and successful.

Ansari refers to a study called “Geographic Proximity of Partners in 5,000 Marriages, Philadelphia, 1932,” which reveals that 51.94% of people who were married in this study lived within 20 blocks of one another before they began dating, (15). These numbers are just one example Ansari gives to prove his point on just how different dating was in past generations, as roughly half of all people were simply marrying someone within close proximity to them. And it goes deeper than basic proximity. According to C.L Harrington, “Those who monitor trends in marriage, divorce, and intimacy note that the ideal of love in America appears to be undergoing gradual but significant change, and the reasons for it are hard to grasp.” Nowadays, dating is not so easy. With cities becoming so large and the people becoming more specific to their dating preferences, Ansari argues that online dating is becoming more than just a last-ditch option.

According to the case, the attractiveness of meeting others online instead of finding them in the real world has increased dramatically over the last two decades. The primary drivers

Firstly, by using technology, it allows for individuals to interact over the web with other people. Encountering people using technology is an undeniably common way of discovering partners and receiving the chance to constantly message and exchange emails, permitting a better connection to build a relationship. The internet, through many dating websites, has helped many people discover others, who then would impact their lives greatly and soon be apart of it. A study found that, “More than one third of U.S. marriages begin with online dating, and those couples may be slightly happier than

With technology, we are granted an infinite amount of ways to connect with people around the world and that ultimately affect our romantic relationships for better and for worse. Even after Aziz Ansari’s years of incorporating personal romantic complications into his stand-up comedy, he decided that complaining about the challenges and pitfalls of looking for love in the Digital Age through Match.com, OkCupid, Tinder, Twitter, Facebook, or any other social media site, wasn’t enough; he wanted answers. Ansari teamed up with New York University sociologist Eric Klinenberg to better understand how people seek romantic partners, how technology has changed the search for a mate, and how instant communication has opened up an infinite amount of options. Their research included: interviews and focus groups, analyses of past and current behavioral data, plus discussions with leading sociologists. Ansari’s work payed off, allowing him the insight needed to craft his memoir: Modern Romance. Effectively combining sociology with humor, this memoir is highly recommended for fans of Ansari, readers interested in the social media’s impact on relationships, or even singles looking to up their game.

This seems to be the common line that sparks an in depth conversation these days. As technology is evolving, people have become hooked to scrolling through pages and pages of social media on a tiny screen. With the increasing availability to connect with others through apps, the dating world has drastically changed throughout the years. This topic of love and relationships in the current day and age is discussed and analysed in Aziz Ansari’s book, Modern Romance. With the help of NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg, Ansari explains how not only our perspectives and expectations of love have changed, but also how the online dating world has evolved to become part of modern society. He expresses his own thoughts and opinions about romance and talks through his dating experiences, resulting in an insightful and amusing read.

In today's world, the expectations to fall in love have perhaps become "online". This is because dating sites are no more regarded as a tricky way for getting in touch with and bonding with new people. Instead, online dating is now gaining immense popularity as information technologies and digital media have congregated. The contemporary virtual social media has increased the evolution from vital matchmaking sites to sites that make it possible for anyone to "date" in reality online without even leaving their places. Even though face-to-face dating has not disappeared completely, the social media has enhanced the process of online dating tremendously (Brown, 2011).

To right swipe or not to swipe right? Is the question most people today are asking themselves in their search for love. The idea of dating has been around since the beginning of time, where a boy meets a girl, they go out, and fall in love. However, this “traditional” style of dating is quickly dying out. The 21st century brought a whole new life to the world of dating. With computers and smartphones being such a big part of our lives, we are easily able to download an app to solve any of our problems. The process of finding love is never easy. It can often be lonely, frustrating, and filled with rejection and uncertainty. However, technology has attempted to make the process as painless as possible with the many online dating websites and apps we have available to us. There are over 54 million singles in the U.S., and of that over 40 million people have turned to the internet in the search of love. (Spira) Even with online dating growing so rapidly there is still a major conflict between those who prefer online dating and those who prefer traditional dating. I believe that traditional dating is a lost art, and that the negatives of online dating outweigh the good. Sure online dating provides it’s users with the convenience of finding someone at their fingertips, but online dating can also be costly and time consuming, deceiving, dangerous.

The concept of online dating has exploded into mainstream culture since the emergence of the Internet. Websites have allowed for the virtual facilitation of basic needs

Online dating is letting us meet more people contrary to dating in person. In the late 30’s early 40’s when online dating was not available, 82.2% of people meet their significant other at the same address to 20 blocks from the house, that means only 17.8% meet their other in half in different cities (15). Back then we didn’t have many opportunities to meet someone from miles away. Now we can meet people from across the country, that is what online dating is providing for people, a chance to meet someone new and not end up dating the person from down the block.

In our society today a person can often look around a room of people and see nothing but the top of their heads, along with their eyes staring down at lit up screen filled with tremendous possibilities. One thing you doubtfully will view is everyone surrounding talking to each other making kinship with in their proximity. Instead, making connections through their phones. In the article written by Nancy Jo Sales “Tinder and the Dawn of the“Dating Apocalypse””, Sales speaks of the dating culture of the current twenty-first century and her views on how online dating has affected thus creating a sort of “Dating Apocalypse”. In the culture of intimacy may it be consciously or subconsciously people are seeking love and security in their lives through hookups and technological dating cites such as Tinder.

In today's post-modern society, dating practices are both vast and varied. People meet their romantic partners in any number of locations including at work, at the bar, and increasingly, on the Internet. Online dating has become very popular over the past decade, and according to a study done in Washington DC, over 74% of single Internet users in the US have taken part in at least one online dating-related activity. In addition, this study found that 15% of American adults (that's 30 million people) say that they know someone who has been in a long-term relationship with a partner they met online (Biever, 2006).

People search their entire lives for the perfect mate. Humans devote their lives, wage wars, and kill all in the name of love. Our quest for romance is as old as time. Unbelievably, people successfully found true love before the inception of the age of technology and dawn of the Internet and online dating services. “Old Timers”, or more traditional people, found love through courtship, an act of getting to know an individual with the intent of marriage. Courtship is more intentional than modern dating. The ocean has not changed since the yesteryears, and there are still fish in the sea, in fact, there are more fish, but for whatever reasons we still face the same problem of yore, finding a mate. Modern