Americans View Dating Sites More Favorably

I was looking at Rasmussen Reports today and saw a survey about online dating:

Facebook announced last month that it is launching a dating app which could be good news for the social network since Americans look more favorably these days on dating sites.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 21% of American Adults now have a favorable opinion of online dating services like eHarmony and match.com, up from just 16% in late 2012. Slightly more (29%) still view dating sites unfavorably, but that’s down noticeably from the 44% who felt that way in the earlier survey. Fifty percent (50%) are undecided.

According to eHarmony, 20% of those in committed relationships met their partner online:

While your best chance at finding love is through a friend-which is how 63% of married couples say they met their partner-you still only have a 17% chance that you will like the person you’re set up with. Only 9% of women report finding a relationship at a bar or club, and only 2% of men has made a relationship through that scenario.

So where are people finding love? Online dating statistics show that 20% of those in current, committed relationships began online and 7% of marriages in 2015 were between couples that met on a dating website.

People move around so much and are not near their friends and families to fix them up as often. I wonder if our constant mobility has resulted in using more online sources to find partners. Or it could be that it is easier to narrow down what one is looking for in a partner with an online app than just looking around on one’s own. People used to think of online dating as a last resort or as risky but it is now more mainstream and that is reflected in the acceptance of dating apps by many people as a way to meet a potential partner.