Online Dating

Online dating sites have been losing popularity with the 18-25 year old group because of the increasing use of social networking sites. Social networking sites are more focused community rather than individuals but still manage to give users a lot of room for expression. For example, sites like Facebook.com allow users to post photos, videos and links and also have gaming applications. They also allow users to communicate via private and public messages and instant messaging. These features give users more insight into people they are getting to know since they can make judgements based on community activities. These public activities may paint a more accurate picture of a person’s personality than a self-written description would. Some social networking sites also have online match-making applications to help their users find new people. The multi-functionality of these sites is what makes them most appealing to the younger generation.

Online dating sites do not allow this freedom since they are more structured and focused solely on finding relationships. Some sites do have community features like quizzes but these features are not as developed as on a social networking site. Also, all communication and community features may not be available to all subscribers. These features are available depending on the package that the user takes. This relates to another problem associated with online dating sites that social networking sites do not have to deal with. Most social networking is free so users never have to deal with credit card details. However, though some online dating sites offer free services, there are those that do not. These sites can put their users at risk for identity theft and other types of internet fraud if they are not secured properly.