Hype Vs Hysteria: Online Dating

                Online dating is becoming more and more common, in fact according to Dr. Amber Walker of the Pennsylvania State University that as of 2013 1/3 of marriages started online.

Think about that for a second… 33% of all marriages started with strangers who turned to the internet for dating.  While this can be contributed to the fast pace life that Americans live, in which few find time to meet new people at the grocery store, library, or bar and then take time to get to know them before finally starting to go on dates, it also can be associated with the fact that it is easy to manipulate the human mind over a computer than face to face. 

Being a short, scrawny male it’s a hurdle that I must face every time I go and talk to a female, but online I can easily hide the fact that I am not ideal mating material.  I can easily use photos that make me look average height and average weight, and rarely the topic of weight and height come up because it is considered very personal. 

So the main question facing online dating is if it is good or not?  The correct answer is… its complicated.  Many people are buying into the hype, or the positive feedback and possible outcomes, that may occur, and with the numbers of marriages that started from an online relationship, why wouldn’t you buy into it?  According to the same lecture by Dr. Walker referenced above, online relationships (of all forms) have the same breadth, depth, and quality as face to face relationships.  Therefore, if you can have the same exact result for less effort it sounds like the ideal situation!  I mean why isn’t everybody using this??

Lying, murder, fat people… this is just a small list referenced by the video Click into the downfalls of online dating, or the hysteria. It is very easy to manipulate yourself online, but when does manipulation become a flat out lie?  The line is very blurry, and often people tend to be on the side of flat out lying, whether it is intentional or not. 

Often people want to sound amazing, therefore they will put in little white lies about themselves that seem harmless, such as making more money than they actually do, or being more successful in a sport than they really are. These lies tend to be in the beginning of a relationship, in the phase of getting to know the other person, therefore we tend to think very little to these, but at the same putting a lot of stock into them, because this is how we get to know the other person, and have no means of telling if they’re lying.

There are also people who lie and deceive people on the internet on purpose, these people are usually trying to get revenge on those whom directly hurt them in real life, or those similar to the ones whom hurt them.  Catfish the TV Show is a prime example of this. Very often these people attack one individual, pretending to be a different person that the target will find attractive both on a physical level and on an emotional level.  As you can tell, there are many broken hearts.

While online dating has its pros, it has its cons too, therefore the Hype vs Hysteria phenomena carries weight in both categories.  If you are planning on turning to the internet for relationships, I have some advice: BE CAREFUL!!