When thinking about online dating, I am not sure of my feelings towards the process. I am a strong believer in face to face communication and relationships that are built from common friendships, situations, and interests, so I am skeptical about the whole idea of meeting someone based on carefully formulated and edited profiles online. However, I do believe that online dating creates an outlet for people to find those connections, and act upon them in order to foster new relationships that they would not have found before.
Although I am turned off by the way eHarmony approaches love as a math equation, I do think that this algorithm is successful in matching potential partners. Their website takes a clear "logical" and "numerical" approach to something that I find very intuitive, but I do think that the success rate shows that their approach does work. 438 people get married every day in the United States because of eHarmony. EHarmony advertises that compatibility is the core focus and intent of the site. Former CEO Greg Waldorf stated, “It's not about matching people who like certain hobbies … it’s about compatibility. You go on to the site and tell us about you, rather than about what you want.” (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article48) It makes sense to me that relationships are suggested based on compatibility instead of registered members formulating a check list of a desired partner. The intensive survey on eHarmony is designed for people to take the process seriously. Unlike tinder, which is a site based on attraction and first impressions alone, sites such as eHarmony, match.com, and okcupid use a questionnaire matching system that connects people based on their personality, interests, and qualities.
The more research that I have done about online dating, the more I have warmed up to the idea. I suppose that it makes sense to meet someone in an atmosphere where we spend so much of our time. It almost seems less likely to begin dating someone that we bump into at a bookstore or cafe before than meeting someone through social media through mutual friends. Here is a fun video of why we should be more open to online dating and the normalcy of the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fM7Fj1DTmU
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