First I want to say, I learned a lot about myself with this project. At first I thought online dating was negative for my own opinionated reasoning, and the fake profiling, but in terms of fake profile,

1) Know who you’re talking to online

Some people join online dating sites as someone else, or just joke around. The example the guy from anonymous who humiliated that guy in NY,  there’s ways to find out if who he was talking to was real. Call the person, ask for some a lot of specificity. You’d rather not end up looking like the guys on MTV Catfish.

2) Be careful of who you talk to.

There’s no background checks on dating websites, so the person your talking to could be a criminal, or a sex offender.

Here’s a case where that happened

Fake profiling is part of the stigma that online dating gets and if we could get some awareness of safety  then online dating could a lot safer and thought of a bit more positively.

Now Stigma is another thing. There’s a few points I want to make about that.

1) Online dating isn’t for everyone,

A lot of people have their own opinions of online dating.  Examples like thinking that the people on there might be socially awkward, to whether they believe it’s better to offline, or etc. You shouldn’t bash on someone, who is using it. Lets say my professor likes to golf, and I don’t like to for my own reasons. I shouldn’t make fun of him, or be condescending towards him for playing it.  on someone who’s using it. On a positive note. From the research site Pew, Online dating is being more acceptable to people , who know someone that actually use it , who don’t prefer it.

Remember this video I showed?

2) Based on Pews research, Young people (ages 18-25) are more likely to experience the stigma

This age group isn’t as accepting of online dating as older age groups.   It has a lot to do with maturity, opinions, rumors, and as stated before, fake profiling.  On Pew’s research page, it showed that this age group is more likely to have bad experiences with online dating, and it goes with maturity. On the male side, we may harass people online, and the female group is more likely to raise their standards with all the attention they get.

Remember this guy who did research from the mordernman.com?

It make sense for an older age group to have positive outcomes since they’re more mature and, there isn’t as much fake profiling.  Pew’s research shows that ages 18-25 use online dating to just flirt, but that’s more so with mobile dating apps like tinder.

To conclude, the only real negatives of online dating is fake profiling and the bad stigma it has. Like I said for fake profiling just know who you’re talking and be careful of who you talk to, and for stigma as more people accept what it it the stigma will go, but if you’re in the 18-25 year old age group then you’ll experience it more, but you shouldn’t let it defer you from trying it.

If you want to know surf like demographics and successes you can check out the research on pew’s website

http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/10/21/part-3-the-broader-online-environment-around-dating-and-relationships/

Men that have trouble with women, or want tips, check out this site

http://store.themodernman.com/secrets.html

Personally, I don’t see anything with online dating, it’s not something I would do but I don’t see a problem for people who do. I just feel that when you do try to do online dating you should probably be a little more cautious of who you are talking to, just like when you are in public you should be aware of your surroundings, the only difference between the two is you are doing the same thing online. People can be whoever they want to be online, but sometimes it is easier to make a connection with someone online. Online dating is kind of cool in a way because you can narrow your choices by picking qualities in a person that you like, but then again it could probably screw you over because you could say you are looking for a certain type of person and you like doing certain things, and someone who finds you attractive may just ”pretend” to like the things that you like or be this person you are in search of. The con sometimes though is that although you can choose who you want online by saying what exactly you are looking for (your matches) you could be missing out on someone who could be perfect for you but you just want a specific person.

I think the sex offender statistics were kind of scary, but you could meet a sex offender in person as well so regardless, like I stated earlier you just have to be cautious about who you get involved with. We also have brought up CATFISH a couple of times, you never really know who is behind the computer screen until you actually meet them in person.

Okay so I’m completely for online dating and believe that it can be successful, but I don’t believe one should jump onto the internet with the intent to find love. To use me and John as an example again, we met through Tumblr, a site where very rarely people are there to find their mates; they’re there to share their interests with others and sometimes make friends along the way. The fact that you actually end up finding your soulmate on the site is a bonus. I believe that both parties should actually be taking the time to be friends with one another so there’s a bit more of a connection before immediately diving into the “will you date me?” stage. When people pursue online speed dating like match.com or eharmony, I sort of see it like online shopping.