What is Online Dating and What are its Impact on People? Essay

In “Swiping right: Alcohol, online dating, and sexual hookups in post college women”, talks about how Online dating is relatively new and there is limited research on how it has impacted casual dating relationships or mental health. Afterall Most online dating websites and apps do not promote themselves for hookups, but rather to find a serious, committed partner. However, apps like Tinder, has become known as a hookup app, as it provides an avenue to meet up with others who are interested in commitment-free sex and maybe a relationship. Because of this fact the research question is to determine how method of meeting a partner influenced level of intoxication before engaging in a hookup. They hypothesized that heavy drinking would be associated with greater likelihood of engaging in a hookup. Second they hypothesized whether meeting a partner through online dating would prevent drinking during a sexual hookup relative to meeting a partner through other methods. They also hypothesized how a location could affect if they got drunk before a hookup or not.

In the method section, Who were the participants/subjects in the study (humans? Children? Rats? Undergraduates from Harvard?)? How many subjects were there? The participants were 164 participants. All of whom were female, aged 22–29, heterosexual, moderate drinkers (drinking twice a week), not in a monogamous relationship, sexually active or interested in being sexually active, college graduate of a 4-year college, and reporting at least one sexual hookup during the past 12 months. They used an electronic survey conducted daily for 6 weeks. The questions included asking about the previous night’s sexual behavior, alcohol use, method of meeting said partner, and location prior to sexual hookup. Participants measured their frequency of binge drinking, number of drinks they consumed each day of the week, frequency sexual hookups (separated by how they met), and if they used online dating sites.

In the results, they saw an average of 32 episodes of binge drinking about 4 days a week and engaging in an average of 12 sexual hookups. A majority of the participants used Tinder and Bumble however those who met at a bar or party did in fact drink more than those who met online, but reported less sexual hookups in the last year than those who met people at bars. Of 155 participants 110 reported at least one sexual hookup in the 6 week study. The research indicated that within-person level of intoxication increased the odds of engaging in a sexual hookup as well as that meeting a partner through online dating is protective against high levels of drinking before a sexual hookup compared to meeting at a bar/party. Furthermore, they found that either meeting and/or spending time at a bar/party is associated with higher levels of intoxication prior to a sexual hookup. Their analyses suggest that location prior to a sexual hookup could have potential as a predictor of drinking levels during a sexual hookup than how they met the partner. First, there were fairly few hookups with 72% of participants reporting hookups across the 6 weeks of data collection. Second, the sample was 70% White, which is representative of the local community but would not generalize to most places. Third, participants were given 7 days to complete daily survey, which can affect the validity of the study as it could be false recollection. The findings were meant to bring to light the importance of both how meeting someone can affect what you do and how locations matter when in terms of alcohol use and hooking up. As well as how meeting a partner online can prevent binge drinking compared to meeting someone from a party.

In the article “Mating Strategies and Self-presentation in Online Personal Advertisement Photographs”, they developed 8 hypotheses in a primary study aimed at identifying sex differences in what they display in their online advertisement photographs. They predicted that women would smile more, that men would have more grey hair, that men would have more upward angles to exaggerate height, and men would pose to emphasize masculinity. They also predicted men would take pictures outdoors whereas women would be indoors more, that women would show their body more, that women would have less photos with others, and that women and men would tend not to wear glasses in their photos.

In the Method section, the participants were 300 photos of people, 150 male and 150 females. They then categorized the participants by what type of relationship they were looking for 100 men and women looking for an intimate relationship, 100 men and women looking to date, and 100 men and women looking for long-term relationships. All participants ages were between 18-35 giving a good age range to observe. They used Lavalife for the dating site choice as the advertisers and researchers would both be Canadian. They created a male and female profile as a dummy to begin the research and then used only the main photographs on the profiles as the one they chose to study. The advertiser’s single photograph was then placed into a computer folder until they had 100 photographs per relationship category was reached, followed for both men and women.

In the results section, they concluded that for the first trait, smiling, was in fact more women smiled in their photos compared to men. Next they found that men displayed grey hair more whereas no women showed greyed hair. Followed by discovering that yet again men did use an upward angle to emphasize height. However with displays of strength there came a blunder only 4 men did display strength of the 150, thus being right but the occurrence being extremely low. Then as hypothesized men were photographed outdoors more in their photos regardless of category as all the others before it. But when it came to clothing they were right that women wore less in their photos but also noticed that those in the intimate category did so more often than the dating category. The next tested hypothesis was the presence of others in the photo wasn’t supported as they wasn’t enough evidence to support it. Finally they found it difficult to test just like with taking photos with others as there wasn’t anyone more or less likely to wear glasses. They found that women advertised their reproductive fitness regardless of relationship type, and that men displayed different characteristics to women. The findings were to determine if Men tended to seek fertile, attractive mates, and if women provided photographs that display these characteristics. Likewise, women tend to seek mates who possess and will commit resources, so men should provide photographs that indicate their status, success, and financial stability when seeking long-term relationships. As well as what photos people who are looking primarily for sexual relationships have as photos, for which women place a premium on attractiveness and men should display their genetic fitness. There were quite a few limitations to this as well, one being that you can’t tell how wealthy or resourceful one is from a photo and how one presents themselves in photos could be false. In “Online Dating Across the Life Span: Users’ Relationship Goals”, The main research question is what people predominantly look for when dating online such as relationship goals, age and overall appearance. They expected that variables like companionship and sexual attraction would be included in the relationship questionnaire items and that both younger and older users would place greater importance on companionship than on sexual attraction. They hypothesized that older adults might value sexual attraction slightly less than younger and focus more on companionship. Moreover, They tested whether gender differences observed in younger users also exist among older adults. They expected women at all ages to place even more emphasis on companionship versus sexual attraction compared to men.

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In the method section, They used 5,829 e-Harmony users (which happened to be all of them) randomly in other categories while keeping gender at 50% of both Female and Male. Each new eHarmony.com user was required to complete a relationship questionnaire which asked the following: Indicate how important each of the following characteristics would be to you in finding a partner for a relationship” across 30 questions rated from not at all important to very important. There were 3 questions regarding a partner’s sex appeal and sexual compatibility. There were 4 questions regarding Interpersonal communication such as companionship and desired relationship characteristics (e.g., “Being able to easily talk with my partner”). Then the asked another 4 questions regarding individual companionate characteristics but described the desired partner specifically (e.g., “My partner’s sense of humor”). Then they asked about the users demographics such as gender, birth date, marital status, and describing healthy appearance. To conclude the questionnaire the rated their agreement with the statement “I am looking for a long-term relationship that will ultimately lead to marriage” They asked the questions then formulated results varying by age, gender, and relationship qualities. More of a correlational considering they only researched one website in particular.

In the results They found that men value sexual attraction more than women at all ages, the male users consistently valued sexual attraction more than women did in lifespan and age subgroup analyses. They also found that women at all ages place more emphasis on companionship versus sexual attraction was significantly higher for women than men at all ages. Showcasing the importance of communication compared to sexual attraction in women, as well as the importance of sexual attraction compared to individual interpersonal characteristics in men. The wanted to research age in the online dating world and the effects of aging from the effect of past relationship experience and length. However, by studying dating relationships, rather than older married couples, we can begin to study the influence of age separate from relationship duration. eHarmony users aim to receive matches close to their ideal and therefore rate most characteristics as at least “somewhat important.” With this restricted range, the real-world significance of observed significant differences is unclear. As well as, the lack of age differences in importance of companionship may be due to a ceiling effect. Future research could ask to weigh the importance of sexual attraction and communication given real-life trade-offs and look at how the ratings differ from the present study.

In Conclusion, the First article has a falsifiability problem as it is definitely a big factor as they extended the time frame of when you could reply to the surveys. I know I can’t remember what I did 4 days ago which could cause problems as they may have simply just put something in to finish it. There could be another reason one drinks less with an online date, being that there are many predators and as women they need to be aware that they don’t know their date as there are many that can fake a profile. However, online dating profiles may create a false illusion of compatibility based on deceptive profile information. Thus, women may engage in additional protective behaviors to avoid sexual risk but despite this little fact online dating may enhance the desire women already have to use hookups as a means to develop a committed relationship

In the second article I can’t seem to find a way any of these could truly apply to the study other than a 3rd variable being the persons type but they weren’t judging on looks only content and can be replicated. It is an extremely solid study that shows what both genders tend to put for phots and generally explains why certain genders are attracted to said photos.

In the third article, they wanted to research age in the online dating world and the effects of aging from the effect of past relationship experience and length. However, the interpretation of the study is limited by the data and restricted generalizability. In addition to possible cohort effect, replicability is the only thing that comes to mind regarding the first study purely because they don’t quite have a way to include much older people and their attitudes towards dating and online dating as a whole. I believe they should also have potentially have a system of rating users as a study simply to see what is preferred in actual effect by having the visual stimulus of finding people. Based on those triggers in regard to visual correlation (sexual attraction) could potentially change the results.

After seeing all this data I can draw conclusions that generally, you wont see men with glasses, in downward angles inside alone in a photo, and women won’t have pictures without a smile or showing a little bit of skin. Another hypothesis I can make is that generally women drink less than men would on a first date from an online dating site. I can also hypothesize that women are generally pickier when it comes to picking matched from online sating sites. Lastly I can conclude with the hypothesis that generally women are less likely to falsify information than a man would base off of what they look for in dates and what kinds of photos they have.