Internet Dating

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Internet Dating
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• The answer to true love can be found in your
  spit. At least thats what a new site called
  GenePartner.com claims. For 199, the Swiss
  company promises to hook you up with your perfect
  mate using a sample of your DNA. The site says
  love is no coincidence, and that genetic
  compatibility between you and your partner
  creates a better sex life, a higher fertility
  rate and healthier children. (Mohammad, 2008,
  Macleans)

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E-Dating Services

• List off some e-dating websites or companies

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Commonalities and Differences

• What are some of the differences and
  commonalities that run through these websites?
• Three broad categories of online dating services
  (Fiore and Donath,2004)
• Search/sort/match systems
• Personality matching
• Social network systems

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Sociological Perspectives

• The effects and transformative nature of
  globalization
• The sociological definition of online dating and
  its relation to virtual space
• More than 60 dating services available online
• Sociological research aims to
• Illuminate the social conditions informing
  conditions
• Enhance knowledge of if, and how, online
  technologies mediate and sustain intimate
  connections
• Contribute to a critically informed understanding
  of the nature of intimacies in a global era.

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Conceptualizing online dating

• Heterogeneous social space
• The construction, deconstruction and
  reconstruction of the self.
• An absence of real research in the field
  (Barrakat and Henry-Waring, 2008)
• What are the broad socioeconomic trends that
  inform peoples use of online technologies to
  form new intimate relationships?
• What types of dating activities or relationships
  are mediated/sustained by the use of technologies?

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Conceptualizing cont...

• Do online dating technologies transform the idea
  of intimacy?
• Giddens concept of intimacy vs. Baumans concept

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Characteristics of Users

• Anxiety as one characteristic of
  users-contradictory results (Valkenberg and
  Peter, 2007)
• Not related to income or education
• Gender is implicated, males report using services
  more than females.
• Age

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Why use Internet Dating Services?

• The internet as a means of communication or a
  tool of communication
• Enrichment of social connections- better
  connection with family members, friends
• College/University lifestyle- anxiety (Stevens
  and Morris, 2007)

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Internet Attitudes, etc... (Anderson, 2005)

• Generally, people used to think negatively about
  online relationships.
• Online relationships lack creditability
• Thus, there is a strong, negative stigma attached
  to forming online relationships- is this true?

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Romantic Beliefs

• The ideal of romanticism characterizes most of
  our intimate relationships.
• love conquers all
• The idea of romantic destiny or soulmates- is
  this true of those on the internet.
• Cyber romanticism

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The Formation of Identities

• How do we go about creating and re-creating our
  identities?
• The definition of identity the cognitive and
  affective understanding of who and what we are.
• In more modern times how has internet usage
  helped to re-create our online identities.
• The virtual reality of our identities

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The Formation of Identities

• Theoretical orientations on identity formation
• Identity is composed of many different ideas
• The selves-both now and possible-are part of the
  identity formation.
• The key to identity re-creation(Yurchisin et al.,
  2005)
• Online dating services as consumer driven

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Emergent Trends (Yurchisin, 2005)

• Motivation for identity exploration and
  re-creation via internet dating service
  consumption
• The appearance of now-selves in profiles
• The appearance of possible-selves in profiles
• Effects of e-mail responses and interactions
  online

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The Perception of Risk and Health

• The risk of sexually transmitted diseases amongst
  online users
• Little research done on how individuals
  communicate these risks among online interactions
• (Couch and Liamputtong,2007)
• Risk Theories Definition and theoretical work
  done on risk and perceptions of risk.

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Risk cont...

• Findings from one study
• Risk and risk management
• Minimizing the risks
• Risk of exposure
• Scapegoating
• Comparisons and self-confidence in risk taking
• Control in risk-taking

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Virtual Intimacy-Does it exist?

• The development of intimacy (excluding internet
  dating sites)
• Classical psychological approaches to the
  formation of intimacy
• The reports of virtual relators