Lessons in love:
Sarah Moser and Amy Parker
Special Projects Editors
The facts about online dating
Maybe you work long hours. Maybe you don’t like the bar scene. Or
maybe you’re just too shy to take the initiative to introduce yourself to
someone. It’s the day-to-day obstacles that keep people from finding
“the one.”
People of all ages, lifestyles and locations have all faced this problem.
In the last 10 years or so, a new solution has arrived to help lonely hearts
find their soul mates: online dating.
. So many of us work too hard, or spend so much time doing other things
that we don’t have time to get out and meet people. While many of us
expect someone to just appear, most of us realize that this won’t happen.
As more people are having trouble meeting someone, more are turning to
online dating services.
There are over 100 million single adults in the United States alone and
over 17 million looked at online dating services in 2002, with a predic
tion that this number will have doubled by the end of the year, according
to an article titled “How Online Dating Works.” And it is not just a
female thing either. About 48 percent of men have used online dating
services to find their new soul mate.
Whether someone is looking for a long-term relationship or a fun fling,
the process can be made easier online. There’s no having to worry about
what you’re wearing or where you are going since meeting and talking to
someone can be done in the privacy of your own home with you, the
computer and a potential match.
There are so many dating sites out on the Web. Several have even start
ed to focus on getting specific groups of people to their sites. For exam
ple, there are Web sites specifically for seniors, Muslims, fitness-orient-
ed people or people who are just looking for new friends. However, the
sites with the most members are still the ones that boast romantic match
making as their number one priority. http://wwwEharmony.com reports
10,000 to 15,000 new users every day and http://wwwMatch.com, the
leader in online dating services, has over 8 million members. Match.com
opened in 1995 and their site reports that each year over 200,000 mem
bers find the partner they were looking for.
After entering an online dating site, you can look at other people’s pro
files without making one of your own. The amount of information you
can look at depends on the site. Some sites let users restrict access to their
profiles to paying members only. Sometimes photos are only displayed if
you have a paid membership. This preserves anonymity, so no one looks
at your profile unless you want them to. Only with a paid subscription
can someone see the picture on your profile.
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The Basics: All you need to know about creating
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