This week of class was all about online dating sites and how people interact with in these communities. Dating Sites, which have been in the mainstream for a while now, are something that I haven’t really thought about a lot, but it was interesting to analyze them and learn more about why humans feel the need for these sites. The discussions in the class were very eye opening and hearing every one’s opinions and thoughts about online dating helped me understand why people go to these sites to find someone to have a romantic relationship with. It wasn’t so much the information we talked about that I cared about learning but it was the broad relationship to human interaction and how I should use the way we learned about this subject and apply it to other things that I have a view on.
I think what I learned most about this week was taking a subject that you don’t know a lot about and by discussing it and thinking critically (asking those ‘Why do we need this’ questions) your views of a subject can change from your initial reactions. I had one view of online dating but once thinking more about it and understanding it I changed my views. This whole class has been doing that to me a lot and has taught me to really give subjects a second look and take a little more time to understand things before thinking of your stance on the subject. After realizing that once you learn about something and understand it you can have a more open mind comments like Ryan Wriggly’s started to bother me. He said “The leaders with these online dating companies do a fantastic job of marketing their products. People are suckers and will usually buy into something if people appear passionate or supportive. This article serves as the support to a certain degree.” Makes me a little frustrated because he doesn’t seem to understand the point of these discussions is to rethink things where we think our minds are made up.
I have no preference whether or not someone wants to date online, it is their decision, and I did not find our classmates debate on whether or not online dating is good very informative. But, what I connected with in general is how people have taken something so broad like the Internet and used it to develop subcultures on VC’s as well as dating sites such as eHarmony. The article on Wednesday really helped me come to understand this broader concept when it talked about the difference between VC’s and DS’s, and the different users that go along with these sites. This classes subject have really become a study on human interaction in general and since humans are such social people and we desire the need to feel loved and accepted it is very interesting that we have developed all different and new ways of accomplishing these connections over the internet. What got me thinking about this was Anthony Martini’s comment, “This kind of innate human tendency to distort information (both provided and received) highlights the need to appropriately gauge the role of online dating as one that provides the initial steps of the relationship -- bringing two people together -- and is not a substitute for personal interaction and development of the relationship offline” was the main comment that got me thinking about why sites like eHarmony even exist. It is so interesting to me to study human interaction and even adaption. (adapting to how to communicate on the internet) We have this need to be loved and understood and that is why these communities have come about on the internet so people who need to be accepted that are seeking some love, can find it over the web.
So on the topic, I am pro dating sites and think they are a good resource to use to meet new people and to take a relationship from online to personal. I think they let people meet new faces that they would not meet in person. I am slowly learning how to develop my thoughts and put them into writing in the discussion and have started to be more critical of my fellow classmates posts, I don’t want to just agree with what they are saying but I want to read and understand and then develop my own thoughts on the subject we are studying. I also liked the comparison between the different generations again with the use of technology but also how they view the world in general and I think this type of topic would be very interesting to use in my research for the final project.
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