Are you willing to try it? Online Dating…

Possible Dating Option for Students with a Busy Schedule

By Kamille Sheikh
 

If only dating was as easy as pushing one button! We had a couple questions from our readers about making time for dating considering a packed schedule with school, work, family, friends, etc. I feel like this is a very common issue for college students, so much to do and not a great deal of time to focus on certain aspects of your personal life. I think dating is usually one of the first things busy students tend to put on the backburner during school semesters, sometimes we just don’t have the time or energy to go out and meet people. Then there is the question of WHERE does a busy student meet people, we see people every day, in our classes, at work, or at the store, but HOW do you meet people who are potential dating partners with a busy schedule?

 

           In these modern times where we have technology available at our fingertips 24/7, the online dating trend has become increasingly popular. Perhaps one way for students with time constraints to meet people is to possibly join the online dating community. I know it may sound scary to some, but consider that 16 million people in the United States have tried online dating to find a romantic relationship and 3 million of those people have developed long-term romantic relationships, such as marriage, from online dating connections (Toma, Hancock, & Ellison, 2008). Wow! The uneasiness around online dating is beginning to fade, as the numbers clearly show. And we have all seen the many TV commercials of popular online dating sites; some of those group events sponsored by Match.com look really fun! Don’t feel like online dating is a last-resort, but another way to date considering your busy schedule. We all need to have a healthy balance in our life, including romantic relationships, too much focus on school or work can be unhealthy.  

Online dating can be a convenient, easy way to set up meetings with potential dating partners on your own time, when you might not have the time to meet these people at the usual dating spots like coffee shops, clubs, bars, and school/community gatherings- those meeting places they really highlight in rom-coms but don’t really exist in the real life. Yet, I think if you do try online dating, beware of the deception that exists in ‘online’ profiles. Everything in life has pros and cons, online dating is no different. We have a great deal of technology available to us to engineer the perfect online dating profile, we want to be seen as a person people would like to date and this pressure may influence the use of deception in online dating profiles (Toma, Hancock, & Ellison, 2008).  ‘Don’t believe everything you read/see on the internet’ has become the catchphrase of our generation, so heed this warning when breaking into the world of online dating.

In one study examining if people lie or exaggerate on their online dating profiles, 81% of participants admitted to using some form of deception about their personal and physical characteristics. Not surprisingly weight and height were the characteristics most ‘lied’ about. Most of these deceptions were subtle in nature, but there were some extreme example of physical characteristics deceptions. Considering gender, men often reported being taller than they actually were and women reported weighting less than they actually did. Also, men reported more acceptance of women being deceptive about their education and job, while women were not as accepting about men lying about those characteristics (Toma, Hancock, & Ellison, 2008).

This study highlights how most people may be deceptive in some way when creating an online dating profile, keep this in mind when creating your online dating profile and viewing others. I think the most important thing to remember when considering online dating is to be HONEST. Don’t be afraid to try new things to meet new people, especially if you don’t have much time left over at the end of the day to search for potential dating partners. Online dating may be worth trying out. And remember, those 3 million people who are now in long-term relationships that developed from online connections probably presented who they really were in their online profile.
 

Reference

Toma, C. L., Hancock, J. T., & Ellison, N. B. (2008). Separating fact from fiction: An examination of deceptive self-presentation in online dating profiles. Personality And Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1023-1036.