Online Dating Research Paper

Riya Haria

COM CM 380

Professor Vigil

5th October 2017

A Modern Fairytale

If you are a part of the Generation Y or Millennial age group, there is a strong chance that you have heard the phrase, “Back in our day…” from your grandparents at least once in your lifetime. In today’s world, everything is accessible to us at the touch of our fingers. With this ever-growing, fast-paced, technological world, the difference between the Baby Boomers and the Millennials has increased more than ever. The biggest difference between these two generations has been through the way romantic relationships have evolved. Most romantic stories today start with, “We met on tinder!” instead of, “We met in the park!” The biggest platform to bring about this change

However, with changes come challenges and it is important to tackle these challenges in order to deal with this new world of modern dating. The first order of change refers to changing the behaviors of individuals in system through mentoring. Whereas, the second order of change seeks to resolve underlying differences through process of reframing, that is, is to intentionally seek alternative perspectives to a problem.

The core of a relationship is based on emotional feelings such as love, trust, honesty. Love is a concept and can be applied to a variety of individual experiences or objects and can be understood in different ways. Theories help us understand concepts. Thus, communication theories help us understand and research into the concept of love. (Dainton, Zelley, 7)

The first step to understand this modern concept of dating begins with signing up on an online dating website. There is a multitude of preferential questions on websites like Tinder.com and Match.com that serve as the emblems

URT seeks to explain when, why and how individuals use communication to minimize their doubts when interacting with others. (Dainton, Zelley, 39) To reduce uncertainty, Berger (1979) suggests that first, anticipation of future interaction suggests you are more motivated to reduce uncertainty about someone you are likely to see again. The second condition is incentive where the individual has the potential to reward you. And the last condition is, if the person is odd or eccentric in a way that exceeds your expectations, you will be more likely to reduce your uncertainty about the individual. In the case of a first date, when you have never met the person in real life, you experience cognitive uncertainty because you don’t know how you completely feel about them since you haven’t physically felt their presence around you. Whereas, for the actual first date you feel cognitive uncertainty because you don’t know what to expect or how to act in a given situation. To reduce these uncertainties and unsure emotions, there are three additional approaches: Passive approach is where you privately investigate information related to the person. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram serve as supporting devices in this approach by helping us to get to know someone’s personal life indirectly. The second approach is the Active approach where one seeks information from a third party. When one