The Pros And Cons Of Online Dating

As technology continues to advance in our society, we find ourselves becoming increasingly occupied with the possibilities of the internet. As a result, there are more chances of online interactions than ever before. According to Whitty & Carr (2006), online dating is becoming the source of a vast amount of romantic relationships. Websites have become quite precise in the way they pair potential partners, using research driven models. These sites are simple to access and navigate to the consumer. However, what about possible safety issues that arise with online dating? In this paper, several possible explanations will be provided to unearth this dilemma. Madden & Lenhart (2006) discovered that about 66% of individuals who use the internet,

As defined by Raffel (2013), self-presentation is a method by which individuals create and represent themselves in order to impose a particular impression for their target audience. Many individuals are primary concern is with the accuracy of online self-presentation. Although there are a number of ways to be presented through pictures, biographies, and videos, how can an individual be completely sure that these online presentations are truly representative of the real world character? Caspie & Gorsky (2006) investigated this concerned but surveying participants engaged in chat room activity. Nearly 75% of the participants reported their belief of extensive deception that takes place

The results suggested that, generally, the lower the online daters’ attractiveness, the higher the possibility the individuals would augment their profile pictures and provide falsified information regarding their physical characteristics. However, individuals only changed aspects concerning physical appearance; they were less likely to lie about things like income, hobbies, and occupation. Because online dating does not allow for nonverbal cues, a lot of the information communicated can be changed easily; this leaves room for more deceptive behavior (Toma, & Hancock 2010). Studies have also shown that 20% of online daters have actually confessed to using deception online, however, 90% of online daters felt like other individuals were lying (Epstein, 2007). This exemplifies the phenomenon that individuals may not disclose their personal deceptions; however, it is easier for them to speculate others’ deception. Even though there is ample opportunity to find potential partners through online dating, participants do not know exactly who they are meeting and talking to, so they are more inclined to believe that online dating is potentially full of fake information (Toma, Hancock, & Ellison, 2008). Online dating is based on what an individual posts on their profiles so it is easy to stretch the truth to get the initial contact from