Statistics

Online dating has become a typical way to meet people outside of your own social networks. In fact, the majority of people have tried it at least once.

But what about the opportunity to connect via social media? Most people have a Facebook or Twitter account, and they contain a wealth of information about what we like, who we are, who are friends are, and what we do. The natural progression of social media is to harness this information and look to who might benefit from it – including online daters.

In fact, eHarmony released a study recently which found 7% of people who married after meeting online had met for the first time on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and ClassMates – not through matchmaking chat rooms, online dating sites or other romance-based online connections.

In an article in Time Magazine, Jeffrey Hall, associate professor of Communication Studies at University of Kansas, decided to investigate this connection. He wanted to learn more about who was meeting their significant others through social media, and how well these marriages fared.

He surveyed over 19,000 people who had been married between 2005 and 2012, and asked them how they’d met. Those who met on social networking sites were more likely to be younger and married more recently compared to those who met online in other ways. He was surprised to find that those who met via social networking sites were just as happy as those who met online, and those who met online in general were happier than those couples who met in more traditional ways, such as through friends.

Social networking sites have potential advantages over online dating sites, Hall noted. For one, you can meet people through networks of friends, which means there is some connection first. This puts many people – especially women – more at ease. Also, people are more likely to represent themselves in an honest light over Facebook, because their friends are reading their posts and making comments. You get a more complete view of the person you’re meeting – where she likes to eat, what TV shows she watches, what she does for a living. A Facebook page is a little more personal than an online dating profile.

Another interesting finding in the study was that most of the marriages resulting from social media connections were among African Americans. Hall attributes this to the fact that African Americans and Latinos were over-represented on social networking sites between 2005 and 2012, and use social networks to engage with their already close network of friends.

Social media is an important part of making romantic connections, and is growing in popularity every day. Maybe it’s time to check Facebook if you want to meet someone new.

Dating is never easy, but apparently it's especially hard if you're a woman living in New York City or man living in San Francisco.

According to data from 2012, there are 473,600 unmarried men aged 20-44 living in the Bay Area, and 396,373 unmarried women in the same age range. Men outnumber women by 77,227. In New York City, on the other hand, women outnumber men by 7,215. An online dating service called The Dating Ring is getting a lot of press lately for promising to fly a jet full of single ladies from NYC to SF (while sending a plane-load of men in the opposite direction) if they can raise the money for the stunt.

It started out as a joke, but now Lauren Kay, CEO of the dating service, is seeking $10,000 to $50,000 in Crowdtilt funding to buy plane tickets for some lucky single people on Memorial Day weekend. If the financial goal isn't reached, everyone who made a donation will get their money back, but if all goes as planned, the East and West coasts will become the sites of “matchmaker-curated dates” arranged by The Dating Ring.

"It's a crazy idea that started out in jest," Kay told the San Jose Mercury News. "But it is not that crazy to go to another city with better odds to look for someone special." She suggests that subjects think of it as “a fun vacation.”

Frankly, it sounds like the perfect opportunity for another terrible reality show. Just imagine all those touchy-feely Californians going up against the hardened New Yorkers! So much potential for drama!

Richard Lane, a Bay Area dating expert with Events & Adventures, thinks that local men “will want ladies at the same level of intelligence as them.” Men in San Francisco “want someone who wants to get up and go. A woman who will hang with him at the sports arena in sweats, with her hair pulled back, by day -- but that night, can dress up, go dancing and knows how to pick the right wine to go with a great meal."

Of course, the potential culture clash isn't the only thing that stands to go wrong with this silly scheme. Jeremy Bollinger, president of DateSwitch, a San Francisco speed-dating firm, notes that the setup is dooming New York women and San Francisco men to being in long-distance relationships from the get-go. "Why do this,” he asks, “when there are actually San Francisco women looking for San Francisco men?"

I’ll tell you why, Jeremy: publicity. And it’s working darn well…the Internet hasn’t shut up about the idea since it was first announced.

Tinder just announced that it's reached a seriously impressive milestone: it’s made 1 billion matches between its users. That number was just 1 million in January 2013, making Tinder one of the most memorable success stories in online and mobile dating history.

In fact, Tinder has been so successful that even celebrities are getting in on the game. Although you might think it wouldn't be hard for good-looking, A-list of famous folks to find a date, it looks like they have a little more trouble on Tinder than we under-the-radar people would expect.

“We’ve had celebrities reach out to us frequently throughout the last year, sort of calling out various frustrations convincing users that they were actually who they are,” Tinder co-founder Sean Rad told TIME. “One impediment is that sometimes their Facebook accounts, which we pull information from, includes different names than their actual likeness… So [celebrities] were asking for the ability to modify their Tinder name and maybe have a verified badge.”

That's right – apparently all kinds of famous people want nothing more than to be able to swipe right, but their potential matches assume that the well-known faces in their profile pictures mean their accounts are fakes. Making it worse is the fact that Tinder requires Facebook account authorization in order to verify identity, and a lot of celebrities use fake names on social networking sites for privacy purposes. It's a combination that's almost guaranteed to make the average mobile dater send a profile straight to the rejection pile.

Rad and his co-founder Justin Mateen know first-hand what that feels like. For a while, they both listed themselves as the app's co-founders in their Tinder profile taglines. Again and again, they found themselves rejected by users who didn't believe they were telling the truth about their identities.

“It was awesome [to know celebrities are on Tinder] because it sort of validated our theories that everyone, even people of influence, need help forming relationships,” Rad said. “It’s important to us that our users know we are committed to authenticity on every level.” So with that in mind, Tinder is adopting verification badges like Twitter in order to confirm celebrity identities and allow the famous and non-famous alike to intermingle without fear of being scammed.

Of course, Rad won't disclose which celebrities are using the app, but he assures TIME that “These are A-listers.” Sochi Olympians admitted to using Tinder during the Games, and Lindsay Lohan told her Instagram followers know that she found her brother on the app, so you at least know that you stand a chance of meeting one of the world’s most talented athletes and one of the world's most famous redheads.

Match.com's Singles in America study, now in its fourth year, examines the attitudes and behaviors of over 5,300 American singles from all walks of life in order to get a glimpse into how love and relationships are viewed today.

I don't need to tell you that cell phones have completely changed the way we relate to one another. And that goes double for dating. In fact, as much as we may want a committed relationship with someone else, the most committed "can't-live-without-you" relationships we ever have might be with our mobile phones.

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but you get the picture. We're pretty much inseparable from our devices. Match.com's fourth Annual Singles in America Study took a look at how the rules of dating etiquette have changed now that were stuck at the hip (or pocket or palm) with our smartphones. Whitney Casey, a Match.com relationship expert, suggests observing the following seven do's and don'ts when it comes to your cell and dating etiquette:

• Know thy self(ie). Most men report loving any kind of photos sent their way, whether sweet or sexy, but most women say sexy pics are a phone faux pas. 75% of women rank racy photos as their #1 foul, while 76% of men say it's their #1 form of phone foreplay.
• Save the slang. Emoticons are a-ok, but abbreviations are another story. Steer clear of slang that requires a Google search for decoding.
• Text timing is everything. As with the Great Selfie Debate, men and women disagree significantly on the ideal time for texting. 63% of women say they enjoy texting during work hours, but men prefer to stay focused on their jobs from 9-5. "Texting during work hours" ranked 2nd in the top three phone fouls for men.
• Be trained in text tempo. Cool your jets. Both men and women dislike it when you're too quick on the text message draw. Sending a second text before receiving a reply is a major no-no for everyone. Nearly 60% of men say it's their #1 phone foul, while women rank it in their top three.
• Cast a wide net. The more dates, the merrier! 72% of women say it's ok to casually date more than one person at the same time and 60% of men agree.
• Save the drama for your mama. 84% of women and 80% of men think using social media to air emotional drama or chronicle personal life details that are too personal is a huge turn off. Pause before you hit Post and think carefully before you select Send.
• Say hi with your eyes. Video chat is the next big thing. Nearly half of singles in their 20s are already using this trendy technology to keep in touch with their dates. Welcome to the future.

Match.com's Singles in America study, now in its fourth year, examines the attitudes and behaviors of over 5,300 American singles from all walks of life in order to get a glimpse into how love and relationships are viewed today.

"U.S. singles most often have sex at night, don't want to know their partner's sexual history, have trouble deciding when to have sex with a new dating partner, and overall just want more sex," says Dr. Justin R. Garcia, PhD., Scientific Advisor at Match.com. "But why?"

That's the million-dollar question, one of the many questions Match.com tried to answer in the latest Singles in America study. A survey of what it means to be single would be incomplete without an examination of what it means to be single and sexual, because whether you're a new couple or have been married for half a century, sex is an important ingredient in almost every romantic relationship.

Research has shown that sexual satisfaction influences a huge range of outcomes, from one's happiness, to one's health, to the likelihood of a breakup. So what's the state of sexuality in America today? Match.com says:

• Singles want more sex. We probably didn't need a study to tell us that, but we got one anyway. 68% of single men and 57% of single women say they want more sex in 2014, although it may still be less sex than you're expecting. Most singles ideally would like to have sex 2 to 3 times per week - only 15% of single men 12% of single women would ideally have sex every day.
• We are all really confused about when we "should" have sex. Everyone is stressed out about when to take a new relationship to the next step. Nearly half of singles think it's only okay to have sex with a new partner once they've reached the 6th date. Men, on average, tend to count the number of dates (and observe totally idiosyncratic rules about which number it's appropriate to have sex on). Women, on the other hand, tend to rely on relationship milestones - such as a clear sign of commitment or exclusivity - to mark when it's okay to make things sexual.
• Some of us are keeping our number under wraps, but it's fewer than you might expect. 21% of women and 23% of men admit to altering their number of sexual partners (in either direction) when asked about it. Nearly half singles of both genders simply say they've don't want to know their partner's sexual history at all.
• Television is totally killing the vibe. 77% of men and 82% of women consider the TV a huge turn-off. In fact, it's the #2 sexual turn-off for women and the #1 sexual turn-off for men. Why? Because TV is hugely distracting, and satisfying sex doesn't happen when your attention is focused elsewhere.

Match.com's Singles in America study, now in its fourth year, examines the attitudes and behaviors of over 5,300 American singles from from all walks of life in order to get a glimpse into how love and relationships are viewed today.

When it comes to modern love, there is no greater expert than Dr. Helen Fisher. Dr. Fisher is a Biological Anthropologist, a Research Professor and member of the Center for Human Evolution Studies in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University, and the Chief Scientific Advisor to Chemistry.com (a division of Match.com). She's shared her expertise in five books on the evolution and future of human sex, love, marriage, gender differences in the brain, and the way personality types shape who you are and who you love.

Needless to say, she's a lady who knows what she's talking about. And fortunately, what she sees in the data from the most recent Singles in America study gives her hope for the future of relationships.

In our modern age of hooking up, friends with benefits, cohabitation before marriage, and constant interaction through computers and mobile phones, many Americans believe that we are living in an era of emotional isolation and sexual chaos. But not Dr. Fisher. In fact, she sees many positives about the ways we date now:

• We are less prejudiced than ever before. 75% of singles say they would make a long-term commitment to someone of a different ethnic background. 70% of singles say they would commit to someone of a different faith.
• Despite our increasingly progressive approach to choosing a partner, most singles still want to wed. 79% of men and women in their 20s and 62% of those in their 30s plan for marriage to be a part of their future.
• Not only do most of us still want to marry, we want to do it for the "right" reasons. Only 14% say they plan to marry for financial security. Instead, 86% of single say they want to wed to "have a committed partner to share my life with."
• Even those who say they'd don't want to marry chalk their feelings up to the fact that they "don't think you need a marriage to prove you love someone." So even if the significance of marriage is on the decline, says Dr. Fisher, love most certainly is not.

Unsurprisingly, traditional forms of courtship and partnering are also on their way out. Around 92% of men say they're comfortable being asked out by a woman, and 33% of men say they would make a long-term commitment to a woman who is a decade or more their senior. Moreover, the majority of singles now also approve of same-sex marriage, childfree marriage, and having children out of wedlock.