(Online Dating Industry Journal) The Orlando Sentinel has published an article about how the stigma associated with online dating is starting to disappear among college students. It says that one way students are now searching for love is through sites like eHarmony and Match.com.
From the article:
"According to data from Match.com, the biggest online dating service in the world, there has been a 12 percent increase in college-age students, 18-24, joining its program since 2005. Also, 12 percent of Chemistry.com users are 18 to 24 years old. Additionally, 32 percent of 100 random UCF students surveyed via Facebook said they would consider using an online dating site..."
Click here to read the entire article.
Joe's Comments
While the story may want to project the online dating stigma as disappearing among college students, you'd never get that idea from reading what college students are writing in newspapers about online dating. We recently published two news accounts (first one here, second one here).
My favorite line from the story was a quote by Dr. Robert Epstein who thinks that online dating services give off a sleazy appearance. He said, "It's not like meeting someone in class and getting to know them. You're basically signing up to participate in a bar that's a million miles long."
The comment does make for interesting discussion. For example, True.com claims to be safer than most online dating services because they do background checks. Yet they appear to have some of the sleaziest marketing of any online dating service. The problem is that the more online dating services focus on things like sex in advertising instead of relationships, the more they add to the stigma of being that "million miles long" bar. Real online dating services need more to draw a distinction between what they do and what adult services do. Being looked at as an online escort agency and putting out stats about how many people have sex on the first date isn't a way to break the negative stigma.
I think the Orlando Sentinel article is a little misleading. They quote stats provided by Match.com and Chemistry.com about how many "college-age" people use the service. Just because you're college age doesn't mean your in college. The article also says that "32 percent of 100 random UCF students surveyed via Facebook said they would consider using an online dating site." Note it doesn't say the will or have used online dating services. Only that they'd consider it.
Everything we've seen shows that the online dating stigma that persists today is highest among college students. And we haven't seen any sign of that "disappearing".
Online dating services can do a lot to help the stigma, in general, disappear. First and foremost is to clean up the advertising. Right now only eHarmony.com consistently runs respectable campaigns that focus on the success of online dating. More advertisers need to do this and need to start publishing more success stories. Overwhelmingly, when readers write reviews of online dating services for Online Dating Magazine, those reviews are negative. Services need to do more about gathering success stories and getting them out to the public. Services also need to revamp how they handle billing and complaints about the recurring charges. There's only one dating service we know of that offers refunds to users. I'd like to see more services push stronger customer service while adapting a code of ethics policy.
If you know of good things particular online dating services are doing, let me know. I'm working to promote more positive aspects for an upcoming article in my Inside the Industry column on Online Dating Magazine.
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