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Traditionally thought of as a last resort for lonely hearts, Internet dating
sites are reporting co-eds and frat brothers are also joining the ranks of
online daters.
According to a March 2006 report from the Pew Internet & American Life
Project, 18 percent of 18- to 29-year-old Internet users have visited an
online dating site and 31 percent of American adults know someone who has
used a dating website.
Gail Laguna, a spokeswoman for Collegeluv.com, a dating site with 500,000
members, said young people use the Internet to search for love because they
feel comfortable in this kind of interaction.
"It's a demographic that has grown up going online to communicate with
friends . . . and so [they] are more likely to adopt to using an online
dating service," Laguna said.
She said most of Collegeluv.com's members are not looking for long-term love
when they join the site. Instead, she said, they are just trying to meet new
people.
"It's another way to expand your social circle for those people who may not
feel like going out, but still want to socialize and find a relationship,"
Laguna said.
Los Angeles-based author and dating coach Evan Marc Katz said he attributes
the rise in college-aged online daters to the pervasive role technology and
the Internet have in young people's lives.
"Younger people grew up with computers," Katz said. "It makes perfect sense
to use this medium to find and establish relationships."
He said people who have pictures of themselves on networking sites such as
MySpace and Facebook are probably not concerned with maintaining anonymity
and would be more open to establishing internet relationships.
"It's a matter of fact that computers are not an addition to their life --
they are their life," Katz said.
Older generations typically view online dating negatively because they are
not used to establishing internet relationships, he said.
"There will be less of a perceived stigma for a generation of people who
have never known anything but computers." Source: http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2008/01/18/News/Internet.No.Longer.A.Last.Resort.For.Young.Singles-3158371.shtml
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