Generations of Online Dating

Generations of Online Dating

“In early as 1995, 2% to 3% of the online community was reported to have serious internet addictions, spending most of their waking time surfing and chatting on this medium” (Griffiths, M. 2009). Since then, the fascination with the internet has been ever-increasing. Slowly, each generation adapted personal relationships with the internet. Building upon this foundation, individuals started developing relationships with other individuals, establishing a new way to form attachment to others.  

       With technology becoming smaller, cheaper and more efficient, Internet use became widespread. The first generation began when Match.com was first launched in 1995, a website which served as an online dating service. In 2001, Match.com merged with AOL and MSN to bring online dating to the general public. After 3 short years, Match.com was recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest dating site, providing service to over 42 million people worldwide. Match.com had a very wide user base, where as other sites at the time, targeted niche markets of specific sub-populations.

The second generation began in 2000, when eHarmony was launched. eHarmony differed from Match.com in the way that they used a more scientific approach to create their matches, using algorithm based matching. In simpler terms, they used compatibility matching, pairing up the profiles of any individuals having a substantial amount of information similar to one another. With statistics straight from their website, roughly 438 couples get married every single day as a result from eHarmony’s dating compatibility (eHarmony 2012).

The third generation began to 2008, after Apple Inc. opened its App Store. This App Store provided a forum in which companies could build software programs called Apps. Following this, other companies decided to jump on board as well. With a variety of Apps created, location-based online dating surfaced. Apps like Zoosk and Badoo capitalize in global positioning systems to inform individuals of potential matches nearby. These Apps became extremely popular at an exponential rate, as the software was easy to download, navigate and use. In 2011, Badoo’s Website claimed over 133 million users worldwide (Perspective of Psychological Science, 2012).

With the ever expanding ability to increase efficiency and navigation, online dating sites are only becoming easier to use. Numbers have been constantly growing into the millions, and there are no signs of these numbers decreasing. Studies show that over 49 of 54 million residents in the US alone use online dating services and globally, there are 91 million people around the world using dating apps.

Citations:

Griffiths, M. (n.d). Internet Addiction- Time To Be Taken Seriously. Retrieved July 11, 2009.

EHarmony | History Of Our Online Dating Site & Services. (2012, January). Retrieved February 15, 2016,  from http://www.eharmony.com/about/eharmony/

Finkel, E. J., Eastwick, P. W., Karney, B. R., Reis, H. T., & Sprecher, S. (2012). Online Dating: A Critical Analysis From the Perspective of Psychological Science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(1), 3-66.