Internet has become a medium with which people meet. However, a recent report suggests that couples who meet via the Internet are less likely to get married and many of them split within the first year.
Mobile apps to meet people, social networking websites and dating websites have received enormous popularity since the evolution of the Internet. People now have the option to initiate a relationship online and sometimes with the expectation to find a suitable partner.
However, it is not necessary for a relationship initiated online to last long. Aditi Paul, PhD, of the Department of Communication, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, who is the author of the study, suggests that about 28 percent of the couples who meet via the Internet separate just within 12 months.
The study involved over 4,000 couples and it found that couples were more likely to be in a stable relationship if they met in traditional circumstances such as at work, introduced by friends, socializing and more. The study also revealed that couples who met online have less probability of getting married and the quality of the relation may also be poor.
"Even though a large percentage of marriages in recent years have resulted from couples meeting online, looking for partners online may potentially suppress the desire for getting married. Furthermore, there are other factors outside of how couples meet that determine whether couples will stay together," per the study.
The trend of finding partners online is increasing and reports suggest that about 20 percent heterosexual couples and about 70 percent of the homosexual couples in the UK meet online.
The latest study also points out that one of the reasons that a relationship initiated online does not last longer is due to the fact that many people do not provide accurate information on their profile. Trust is supposed to be damaged at early stages of a relationship when a person finds out about false information on a potential partner's online profile.
Sam Yagan, the CEO of popular dating website Match.com, suggests that dating is shorter when people meet online as many people want to leave unsatisfying relationships earlier as they will get a chance to find a suitable partner again.
The study, which is called "Is Online Better Than Offline for Meeting Partners? Depends: Are You Looking to Marry or to Date?" has been published in the online journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
