Online Dating Vs. Traditional Dating

Everyday, millions of single people share a common goal. They all share the desire in finding a romantic life partner. Most singles date multiple people until they find their true love. However, the techniques of dating have changed with the use of the Internet. While many people prefer online dating to the tradition dating approach, is online dating a safe alternative to the traditional way of meeting potential romantic life partners?

Online dating has become one the fastest growing alternative techniques of dating. According to Dr. Gregory Forge, “ Over 60 percent of all internet users spend about two or more hours each day looking for romance.”(Forge, 135) In North American, about 10 to 30 million people have created an online dating profile.(Forge, 138). There’s no doubt single people are willing to try anything to find their a romantic partner. But are far are they willing to go.

Many people prefer online dating, because they can quickly search through millions of available candidates. And then from the collection of potential candidates, a person can narrow their search to people who meet their specific criteria. And later, if the two people are not compatible, then the dater can click a button and quickly move on to the next candidate. If they used the traditional method of dating then they would have to waste time and go on several dates. However, the only disadvantage of the filter method is the competition that a potential dater will encounter. For example, if I approached a young woman at school in English class and after a few minutes of talking, I asked her for her phone number, she would only have a few seconds to evaluate me and then ask herself, “ Would I like to date him”? Now, if I met her online and after a few emailing sessions, I asked her for her number, she would automatically compare me to the 100 other emails she received from guys who asked her the same question, Then she would ask herself, “Would I like to date him more then…” I think a person has better chances in getting her phone number face to face then over the Internet. However, it might take the traditional dater longer to build up enough courage to ask for her phone number.

While traditional dating doesn’t work as fast like online dating. It takes a lot of time to meet single and interested candidates who suits your particular criteria. And in modern times, many people don’t have the time to filter out the good and bad candidates. According to article written by Jacob Kyleer titled, “Being in Love Online-A Practical Guide”, he reports that “dating sites indicate that their members are mostly educated and financially secure people. This may be partly because there are millions of people in the work force that simply do not have time to go out and meet people.” (Kyleer, 3) Therefore, online dating is beneficial to their lifestyles and unlike the rules of traditional dating, it can be done from the their own home or office. Personally, I felt like I was wasting time when I went out on dates or had lengthy phone conversations with young women that I wasn’t compatible with or our dating criteria’s didn’t match each other.

The majority of online daters invest a lot of time creating their profiles with the intentions it will attract a compatible partner with similar dating criteria. For the purpose of research, I went on a few dating websites and found out that users can search for long or short-term relationships. This feature saves a lot of time, because some people are looking for a romantic life partner and others are looking for casual