The stigma of online dating is slowly starting to fade. It is now a $2 billion industry with over 40 million users in the USA alone. More and more people are downloading mobile dating applications for many reasons. Majority of them want to find the perfect partner and to have a romantic relationship. Some want to find new friends that are living nearby. Others just want to kill time, especially over the holidays.

There are many reasons why these apps continue to grow, and that is because everyone needs someone. As what the famous line says “No man is an island”. It’s natural to crave for friendships and romantic relationships. After all, we are human beings. But is looking for a partner in life through online dating a good idea? Here are some of the pros and cons of this rising pop culture.

The Pros

Jenny Shaab and Ben Marder met over a dating app, fell in love, and got married

Bigger Pool of Possible Partners

Let’s admit it, we don’t have the time to sit in parks and look for people who we can fall in love with. There are also too many people to know them all. Being on an online dating app like Tinder can help close this gap. We can interact with more people and actually pick blind dates based on our preferences.

Convenient Communication

Dating apps offer people the limitless mode of communication. The digital world is good for people who don’t want to invest too much time yet. Unlike the conventional blind date, people can have computer-mediated interactions first before deciding to go out on a date. This also takes the burden of rejecting the person face-to-face.

Matching

Different dating apps use statistics to help us find the ‘ideal guy’. A set of questions are to be answered and sets of qualifications are to be typed down so the system can generate the information and hopefully deliver us to a match. Traditional dates don’t have this feature. We have to go out on a date first and ask them a bunch of answers before we can assess if there’s a common ground. With this ‘matching’ feature, people can actually save dinner bills.

The Cons

Pretty little liars

With the lack of physical interaction, people can create a pseudo-self and a false image to look more presentable. Dating sites don’t do background checks, that is why people can get away with their lies. These deceptions are not a good foundation to start a relationship, in fact, they can only destroy it. Studies have already proven that both men and women lie about different things on their profile. Women tend to lie about their weight and men tend to lie about their height and salary.

People edit facial features of their profile pictures to look “prettier”

Definition of relationship

People can actually misinterpret the kind of relationship people seek in dating sites. The definition of relationship is the biggest pitfall of online dating. Some are looking for serious relationships while others are only looking for one-night stands. A lot of women reported that the man they meet online actually had expectations of spending the night together on their very first date. This is an off-putting thought to those people who are actually on a quest of finding love.

Attacking the self-worth

The need to have a good profile picture or interesting hobbies is a proof that we have to lie so other people can find us interesting. Only dating can sometimes give too much importance to the physical aspects of a person. Let’s face it, most people who have tried dating apps swiped next to those people who they see as unattractive. We are only interested in spending time and getting to know the person who we find pretty or handsome. The constant white lies people put into their profile will soon haunt them. They will be bombarded by thoughts that maybe they are not good enough. Lowering the self-worth makes online dating hazardous.

Sharon Siermans was killed by a man she met online

Bottomline

Like many other things, dating apps have its many advantages and disadvantages. It’s really up to us how to use it wisely. There are bliss and fear of meeting strangers, so it’s best to always be careful and extra cautious (but not to a point of getting paranoid).