“But even if we can’t definitively rule out the possibility that online dating increases the risk of tumultuous relationships, certainly there is little actual evidence in favour of it”.

— Robert VerBruggen

It no longer seems to surprise us if we hear a couple has found each other on an online dating platform. The number of people who turn to online dating platforms has risen immensely in the recent years. The Pew research Center found that attitude towards online dating visibly improved between the years 2005 and 2015. I myself have witnessed an increasing use of online dating services in my circle of friends and have seen their success or failure with this services.

But the question that needs to be asked is if these services are a threat to the “regular” way couples use to meet and if overtime platforms like Tinder and co. will supersede meeting your partner in your everyday life.

Another crucial question is whether online dating platforms have an impact on how we view dating.

The central issue of this blog is the question of the impact of race on online dating and is therefore already partly answering this question. However, much more research needs to be done in order to investigate this phenomenon of online dating further.

The Graph above, by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, shows very well how important such research on the effects of online dating is. Since 2011, online platforms have been the most popular way to meet a partner, while almost all other ways have decreased. With online dating now being at almost 40% of the total share of ways to meet a partner, it can no longer be talked down.

Mark Regnerus discusses this new trend of online dating in his book called Cheap sex. He claims that there might be a thing as having “too much choice” which impacts the way we see dating. Online platforms such as Tinder offer a seemingly never-ending amount of potential partners which results in what Regnerus calls the “too much choice” phenomena. This phenomenon describes people spending too much time sampling their possibilities and still not being satisfied with their potential best fine, because they believe that they could still find better. Mark Regnerus further claims that online dating might work as an incentive to end existing relationships, since other partners are available much more easily. 

In his Blog, Robert VanBruggen also discusses the recent developments of online dating and comes to the conclusion that “even if we can’t definitively rule out the possibility that online dating increases the risk of tumultuous relationships, certainly there is little actual evidence in favour of it. If anything, the correlation seems to run in the opposite direction.” Which is in my opinion a very fitting way to describe the current outcome of the resource that has been done on online dating.