Looking for a match via the online realm has grown in popularity tremendously in the latest years, and it’s understandable. Although it was once seen by many as a shameful thing, online dating has granted life partners for about 20% of men and 13% of women, according to a survey from several years ago.
Looking for love online has some great benefits, but it also has its dark side. Having an entire world at your disposal, getting to choose from all cultures and nationalities, as well as looking for ‘forbidden’ experiences are some of the benefits. But the critics of the practice of online dating will always say that communicating online before meeting in real life will create unrealistic expectations. Therefore, the future of online dating is uncertain, but let’s see some of the possible scenarios:
Online dating would be everywhere
Let’s consider the context of the ongoing pandemic where people are more and more encouraged to opt for virtual meetings, and also the fact that technology keeps finding more and more ways to improve dating apps and our interaction with them. Almost everybody is glued to their smartphones these days, and we cannot rule out the idea of technology becoming a part of us in a more literal sense. In the following decades or hundreds of years, humans could become cyborgs and use integrated dating apps even when they take a shower. It’s more tempting to use an app to solve your problems than to go out there in real life for yourself, so in this scenario, everyone would look for a match online with an integrated function.
You cannot predict chemistry
Many people get along great as long as they chat online, but that connection gets totally demolished as soon as they meet in real life. A woman may find the man of her dreams via an online dating site, for example Chatiw and Chatrandom, but she could feel no attraction at all as soon as they meet at a coffee. More and more people see this huge and apparently unexplainable difference, and it could mean the beginning of the end of online dating.
We aim more for the first heading, as there will always be people curious enough to explore more and more options when it comes to dating, and let’s admit: we all love technology, and companies know that very well. It’s in their best interest to keep developing immersive virtual tools for us to use. However, there’s also a good chance that online dating will remain at the same level of popularity that it already has in the present. It all depends on us.
Nora Reynolds is a major in biology and a minor in Biological Basis of Behavior, writing about science in general. She also likes to try new gadgets and sports about the AI new era.
