Those who face a smaller market for potential partners and may not have bars or social groups where they can meet potential partners in their areas – like gay men, lesbians and middle-aged heterosexuals – are generally more likely to turn to the Internet, says Michael J. Rosenfeld important hyperlink, an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University.
When they met on Match, he was a real hoot. In real life? Not so much. Sharon Rosenblatt, an IT consultant in Washington, D.C., decided to go on a date with one of the men recommended to her by the site’s algorithms. During their meal, she says, he asked her whether it was too late to call a woman he dated two weeks prior. He then “friended” her on Facebook during dinner and, before the check arrived, asked, “Why couldn’t you have hooked me up with your hotter friends?”
“It’s very early in the online dating industry,” says Dan Slater, author of “Love in the Time of Algorithms: What Technology Does to Meeting and Mating.” Sites have gotten better at cross-referencing what people say and do, “but there’s still a lot of room for improvement,” he says. Read the rest of this entry »