The Effects of

Online Dating

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Online dating industry is worth $4billion globally.1

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The online dating industry is

50% females and 50% males.2

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The Market

Daters who are 50 and older is a huge and growing market.2 Photo by Corbis Photos Photograph Royalty Free

The average dating site customers spends $239 a year.3

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Niche dating sites satisfy specific

preferences such as those who are:

Gay

Obese

Cougars

Farmers

In a Religious Group

Convicts

Seeking Affairs4

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Success Rate

Today 33% of couples have met online.

By 2040 this number will rise to 70%.3

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Changing the Industry

Internet dating sites create a larger and more fluid “dating marketplace,” which in turn yields better and more compatible

matches.4

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Undermining Outcomes

“By suggesting that compatibility can be established from a

relatively small bank of trait-based information about a

person online dating sites may be supporting an ideology of

compatibility that decades of scientific research suggests is

false.”4

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Controlling for baseline measurable variable like age,

education and marriage history, matching algorithms are

only “negligibly better than matching people at random.”4

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Threatening Traditional Marriages

Could online dating threaten traditional marriages?

Why settle down when a better match is just a click away?4

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More options

cause the bar for

relationships to

increase…

People always think

they could have

it better. 4

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Online daters are more inclined to quit relationships when the going gets tough as there

are many alternatives.4

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Eroding Marriage Values Could online dating erode the values of

commitment and monogamy?4

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There will be more breakups, because

people won’t feel imprisoned in relationships

that aren’t right.4

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Too Much Choice Increasing the variability of potential

matches increases the chance of rejecting

all potential mates... Too much choice

can cause burnout.4

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Safety and Online Dating As dating becomes more like Internet shopping, some worry about product safety…

Should there be regulations?4 Photo by Dominica News Online

Future of Dating

“We will reach a point when people don’t distinguish between meeting online and offline. We won’t refer to online dating; it will just be dating…

We aren't far away.”4 Photo by Shutterstock

Online Dating... For better or worse? Photo by Onur Dongel (iStock)

References 1. Internet dating: We just clicked. (1928, July 23). The Telegraph. Retrieved May

23, 2014, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/online-dating/9160622/Internet-dating-We-just-clicked.html

2. We Just Clicked. (n.d.). The Huffington Post UK. Retrieved May 23, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/26/the-2bn-relationship-the-business-of-online-dating_n_2024458.html

3. Online Dating Statistics & Facts - Dating Sites Reviews. (n.d.). Dating Sites Reviews. Retrieved May 23, 2014, from http://www.datingsitesreviews.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Online-Dating-Industry-Facts-Statistics

4. Online dating and the search for true love -- or loves - Macleans.ca. (n.d.). Macleans.ca. Retrieved May 23, 2014, from http://www.macleans.ca/society/life/true-loves/