Are you the last of your friends to take the online dating plunge? While the stigma of finding love online may be mostly gone, it can still be nerve-wracking putting yourself out there. It’s normal to be a little hesitant to weigh out the pros and cons of online dating before actually diving in.
To help you decide if this is the love story for you, we’ve outlined the major pluses and hiccups associated with online romance.
Online Dating: 3 Pros and Cons You Need to Know
Pro: Your dating pool significantly grows
You know what they say, the bigger you cast your net, the better chance you have of catching fish. When you date online, your pool of suitors is huge!
Three-in-ten U.S. adults have used online dating at some point in their lives. Think about how many people you engage with on a day to day basis. Now compare that number to how many people are included in this statistic. Pretty impressive right? Opting to date online widens your love search to places and people it couldn’t reach before.
Perhaps more importantly, is that it expands your dating pool to different kinds of people. Before the rise of online dating, primarily, both heterosexual and homosexual couples met through friends. Over time, online dating has closed that gap, which has allowed more diverse couples to meet.
When you only date within your network, there’s a good chance your suitors are similar to you. They may look like you, they most likely were raised similar to you, and they likely hold similar beliefs to you.
But not everyone wants to or can fall in love with someone who is so similar to themselves. By dating online, you can discover new people, who are different from you and challenge you.
Con: You may have to filter some people
The issue with a dating pool being so wide is that you may have to weed through more people. While there are people on dating apps searching for long-term relationships, others enter the online dating world for less serious reasons. Maybe they’re divorced and are testing the waters. Or perhaps they’re looking for a quick fling.
The good news is that if you take time to fill out your personality test correctly, then our state of the art algorithm should take care of this problem for you. Filling it out correctly means you’ll only get matches who have similar expectations as you. That way you can invest your energy in true connections.
Pro: Dating apps are particularly helpful to find love in the LGBTQ community
Over the last two decades, we’ve seen a rise in dating sites that specifically cater to the LGBTQ community. As well as that, we’ve seen more sites taking steps to make their platform a safer and more comfortable place for all identities.
Today, nearly two-thirds of same-sex couples started out online. For those of us who don’t conform to cis heterosexual dating, having safe spaces to meet potentials partners is really important, even if it is online. The open minded nature of these platforms means you’ll never have to worry about your safety, just first date nerves!
Con: You may experience interactions you’d really rather you didn’t have
Similarly to most online spaces, dating online means you’re open to all kinds of interactions. And some of them aren’t always positive. Unfortunately a minority of people engage with online dating for unkind reasons.
Whether it’s unsolicited photos or just generally rude behaviour, you may come across a small number of people who aren’t interested in you, but in their own agenda. This happens in real life dating too – just now the perpetrator is behind a screen.
What’s important to know is what to do if you come across unkind behavior online! We advise reporting the individual anonymously and unmatching them. Also take care not to give out personal information you don’t feel comfortable sharing.
Pro: You’re more likely to find a romantic partner online than anywhere else
As of 2017, not only do same-sex couple predominantly meet online first, but heterosexual couples do as well. Believe it or not, online dating has displaced meeting through friends as the main way that couples meet.
This trend shows that the stigma that people are only on dating apps to hookup has slowly faded away. In its place are happy couples, who use apps as a way to find long-term love.
Con: Lying on dating apps can happen
The amount of people lying on dating apps is significantly smaller than you might believe. Over 70 percent of online daters in the U.S. believe that lying is prevalent on dating apps. But studies show that only 7 percent of messages on dating apps are false.
If you’re feeling concerned that your online crush could be lying to you, there are some red flags you should consider. Whether it’s been online or in real life, all of us have been lied to before and it can hurt! The good things about it happening online? It’s less awkward.
If you’ve been lied to by your match and something seems strange, simply unmatch them. Move forward with your other matches and concentrate on the connections that have potential instead.
Sure, there are pros and cons to online dating, but there are with dating in real life too! And if you ask us, online dating pros certainly outweigh the cons. Particularly if you are a busy professional, searching for love online seems to be the go-to modern day love story!
So consider our pros and cons and decide if dipping your toe into online dating is worth it. We think it could be worth taking the plunge!
