(Online Dating Industry Journal Commentary) I was recently reading an article from USA Weekend that quoted Amber Fowler, a spokesperson for PerfectMatch.com, as saying "The stigma of going online and dating is gone."
Yet the simple fact is that the stigma of online dating is not gone and likely will never be fully eradicated and pronounced "dead".
One of Online Dating Magazine's columnists was on a radio program recently talking about online dating. After their segment was done, the two hosts decided to take phone calls to see what people thought about online dating.
The stigma was apparent in every single response:
"I'm not that desperate yet"
"Why would I want to look for losers?"
"It just seems like a bad idea"
"I'm not that foolish"
"I was very lonely so against my better judgment I decided to try it"
Every single person that called in showed strong signs of the online dating stigma still implanted within society.
A few days later I was watching a news program and a reporter took to the street to ask people about online dating. Once again, virtually all the responses only strengthened the stigma - "it's too dangerous," "not that desperate yet." etc.
While the online dating stigma does appear to be decreasing (virtually everyone knows of a couple who met online and got married), the simple truth is that we may never see an end to the prejudice thoughts some people associate with online dating.
Consider this: the United States has close to 95 million singles. Yet less than one fourth of those singles have explored online dating as a legitimate option to find someone to date. What about the other 75+ percent? Those are the type of people I hear on the radio and television denouncing the idea of dating online.
The simple fact is that the stigma still associated with online dating seems to mostly come from people who haven't tried it. Online dating is, by far, the best way to meet new people to date. Every year there are hundreds of thousands of relationships that come from online dating. The positive aspects of online dating need to be heard more in order to further educate those in the public that haven't tried it.
In the years to come we should see the online dating stigma drop some more as we try to catch up with other countries that have more than 50% of their singles doing online dating. But even as the number of U.S. singles doing online dating increases, the simple fact is that the stigma will never be fully gone. Some people are strongly rooted in their beliefs and others read those media stories about how someone was killed after meeting someone online. As long as both of those exist, the stigma will too.
That's how I see it at least. How about you?
Joe Tracy
Publisher, Online Dating Magazine
Editor, Online Dating Industry Journal
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