Online Dating Research Paper

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One night, sitting on the couch with my divorced mom, we saw a commercial for Match.com. We did what 50 percent of online daters do, made a profile, looked around, and never looked at it again. This made me wonder about the evolving world of online dating. Does it actually work? Does anyone really use it? Is everyone on these websites desperate, lying, and creepy? Through my research I have found that there is some method to the madness of the online dating world, if you want algorithms, money schemes, and hackers determining your future. Despite the isolated cases of success and increasing numbers of users, online dating is not effective. It is important for users to be educated on the machinations of an online dating site. Online dating is …show more content…
While dating online everything becomes flexible-salary, height, and personality traits are among the falsehoods told. Naturally, people want to put their best-foot-forward online and see lying as part of the process. Men and women deceive their profile viewers in different ways. Men will often exaggerate their social status and wealth. The single most lied about trait online is men’s height. Some dating websites even recommend shorter men add a couple inches to receive more matches. Physically, women frequently lie about their weight. Women try to make themselves more relatable to men, often adding a sport or hobby to their profiles. Psychologist have found men are more likely to lie online because of social pressure to be dominant and tough. It has been shown that 57 percent of men never get messages on online dating sites as opposed to the mere 27 percent of women (Guadagno). The pressure is on the men to appeal to the limited amount of women. People will lie when they have the opportunity, and are under pressure. While adding an inch or two might seem insignificant, a person willing to lie about something as meek as height, may be hiding much more. Online relationships are completely different than traditional relationships. They take away all our abilities to be aware of our surroundings (Mantel). The natural cues our body usually picks up on are gone, leaving daters essentially blind. …show more content…
Women are frequently sexually harassed in the online dating community- their inboxes flooded with crude comments. It is agreed upon in online dating that there is a problem with the treatment of women online. Many sites—Bumble, Masque, Siren, Wyldfire, the Grade, and Coffee Meets Bagel—to name a few, are starting to put women in charge of online dating. Bumble is a popular app that allows both users to “like” each other’s pages but, only women can initiate chat. Bumble is one of the “fastest growing dating” sites right now. On Bumble a male user can earn “VIBee” status (Alter). This prestigious title indicates a “good online presence”: no instances of sexual harassment or spam messaging, active, but not too active. The status is supposed to help women find the “nice guys”, making the process easier for everyone right? In theory these women ran dating sites seems to weave out the creeps and solve all the problems in online dating. But in reality, putting women solely in charge of contacting the other party even further separates online dating from actual dating. Women have to deal with “creeps, jerks, and perverts” in their everyday lives. Giving women “boost” in online dating only degrades both men and women. Women don’t need extra help and all men aren’t creeps, jerks, or perverts. Making women in charge of initiating the chat can separate men from the process. If they don’t

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