Online Dating

Online Dating

I think my acceptance of online dating matches the public opinion of it. In class we mention that a lot of people put a disclaimer in their profiles that is along the lines of "I normally never do this kind of thing", and I think that is a holdover from a public stigma over the idea of meeting a romantic partner without a traditional first encounter. When websites like eHarmony and OkCupid started to catch fire, I think is around the time I accepted meeting people online as non-taboo, and then there was Tinder... I think Tinder is probably the best thing to online dating in terms of something that is one hundred percent normal in my eyes. While people on tinder are not all looking for their soul mate, the fact that people are reaching out and interacting with strangers through computer mediated technology in a romantic manner is important. Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster have been around for a while, but they were never "dating applications". Yes, people would meet through these websites in an intimate manner, but that was not the main purpose of these websites. Dating sites have a more serious connotation to them then something like Tinder, but Tinder made it "acceptable" or at the least "commonplace" to talk to then meet up with strangers on the internet. Tinder is a much shallower application then a dating site, but I think that simplicity is what attracted people to it. You do not even meet with these people, but you can in fact just chat them up and trade jokes (although admittedly someone will eventually be upset). Some Tinder matches do not even make it past the first exchange after "Hi". Tinder is simple and accessible, so I think those qualities are what made it a common app on people my ages phones; moreover, this common stranger "dating" app has removed all of the taboo I had personally associated with online dating. In fact; if I hear a couple met on Tinder I think less of them then a couple that met on eHarmony or OkCupid. The jury is still out on sugardaddy.com though.