Not being able to find dates or maintain stable relationships after a certain age can be overwhelming for men. The peer pressure is always there, as you see all your friends getting the hottest dates. But more than that, the inward longing for companionship and romance eats you away. Despite all the advances in communications, medicine, and behavioral psychology, there is still not a sure fire formula that helps single men boost their love lives.
In these desperate times, one invention supersedes all in helping you out, and that is the computer. No, not in that sense! Yes, ‘that’ too helps, but I am talking something greater here. In the following paragraphs, I am going to elaborate how your desktop (and not your dog) is your best friend when comes to finding love.
It’s Not Just about Internet Dating….
From the title of this post, you must have guessed that we are going to talk about online dating. But you will be surprised to find out that computers where being used to help single men meet women way before we had the laptop, and when the internet was unheard of.
It started back in 1966 when two Harvard students (Jeff Tarr and Vaughn Morrill) fed up with their lonely single lives decided to use technology to their advantage. The result was Operations Match which held singles on campus get in touch with members of the opposite sex whom they found davobrale. Together with the help of a programming student, these boys used a punch card system to help people find potential singles that they couldn’t do otherwise. Back then, it was not about money. This ‘service’ was developed just for fun, and for also meeting attractive women using computers.
How Internet Took it One Step Ahead
Speed dating via video and phones was already rampant when the Web 1.0 first came out. It seems like yesterday, but websites like Match.com have been around for almost 20 years now. But still, many single men feel hesitation in using these services. Perhaps it makes them feel like losers. After all, they should be able to pick up any woman at the bar.
There is still not a sure fire formula that helps single men boost their love lives.
Let me tell you that such ideas are simply ridiculous. There is nothing wrong in creating an online dating profile and list your preferences in women. Contrary to popular opinion, many women also experience issues when it comes to their dating lives, and many such ladies are active on dating websites.
And why shouldn’t they be? Consider what internet dating provides to a young, single mother. She doesn’t have to dress up until the first date. She doesn’t have to travel. She doesn’t have to spend money well until she finds someone who strikes her fancy. And the best part is that she can do all of this from her laptop or Mac tablet. According to a recent report, more than 40% of all households in America are those with single mothers with children under 18 years.
And this is excluding other single women out there who are gorgeous, educated, and have great careers. These women find online dating to be highly convenient. In fact, many of them even hire online services that create dating profiles and write emails! Just by letting your ego getting the way of dating online, you are missing out on hooking up or forming a relationship with millions of single women.
The Story Doesn’t End Here
Here are some statistics to help you reconsider online dating:
- As of 2008, dating websites were the 3rd highest-earning content on the internet at $957 million
- The figure rose by more in than 10% last year.
You know what this means? Internet dating is access more than adult entertainment! Moreover, about a third of marriages between 2005 and 2012 began online, and most of those couples are still enjoying their relationship.
The bottom line is that the key to relationship success is just a click away. No matter what your age is, online dating has the potential to help you find the best partner. And once again, there is nothing wimpy about using your desktop to find a date.
What Girls & Guys Said
Opinion
1Opinion
What I see often that is misrepresented by proponents of online dating is just a one-sided, narrow view on statistics taken, as well as ignoring realities and observations about those that use online dating.
I hear the common statistic that 1 in 5 relationships started online and so on. But other stats, such as more than half (54%) of people said they "seriously misrepresented" themselves on dating websites, 42% of women saying they weren't satisfied by online dating, more than a quarter saying they've been harassed or made to feel uncomfortable, with only around 11% of people actually finding a serious long-term relationship.
The non-statistical, reality related topics include:
-meeting people in person and getting a natural awareness of them, their body language, and how they carry themselves (which provides further clues to their mental and emotional health or strengths/weaknesses)
-The ability to edit and fabricate your persona, similar to social media profiles
-A HUGE amount of attention, desired or otherwise (and the ability to essentially treat it like creating the perfect resume to be noticed straight away)
-The non-genuine approach to really getting to know a person (it is delayed until you actually meet in person anyway; so there is now a 'fluff zone' in between what wasn't previously there)
-The ability to hide insecurities, which I've personally seen (as well as read tons about) to cause people to NOT address these issues if they feel they can hide them instead
-Excluding pay sites, the huge mismatch between people's intentions... online dating may be a $954 million dollar industry, but P*rnography (which represents a new culture of casual relationships which is backed up by American society's disinclination towards traditional values and life goals) is a $20 BILLION dollar industry.
(Part 2, ran out of characters)
I'm not saying that online dating is a scam or that your points raised here are not valid. What I'm really pointing out is this idea that people in the last decade or so are looking at online dating with rose-colored glasses and are only regurgitating numbers or points they've heard without understanding the implications of these aspects, as well as aspects they HAVEN'T considered or are aware of.
Online dating is a new thing and people ARE jumping on it. However, it does not produce the same quality of interaction and relationships that face-to-face, "classic" meetings do... and not by a long shot. It's being touted as "the new way", but I feel this is a huge misrepresentation of what it really is, and it's not even coming the most from the online dating industry itself.
Currently, the BEST that online dating can rate itself as is second best to "the good old fashioned way". Take a guy with the "perfect profile" and pit that against a guy that is a confident and charming person face-to-face, and guess who would easily take the prize?
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