According to a new research it was revealed that the adults
who have Internet access at home are more likely to be in a romantic
relationships than adults without Internet access. Michael Rosenfeld of
Stanford University and the lead author of the study has stated that , “
Although prior research on the social impacts of Internet use has been rather
ambiguous about the social cost of time spent online, our research suggests
that Internet access has an important role to play in helping Americans find
mates."
About 82.2 percent of the participants who had the access of
internet at their home also had a spouse or a romantic partner when compared to
a 62.8 percent partnership rate for adults who did not have internet access.
The paper uses data from Wave I of the How Couples Meet and Stay Together
(HCMST) survey, a nationally representative survey of 4,002 adults, of whom
3,009 had a spouse or romantic partner.
It was also found that the internet is the one social arena
that is unambiguously gaining importance over time as a place where couples
meet as stated by Rosenfeld and Reuben J. Thomas of City University of New
York. She also added that, “ With the meteoric rise of the Internet as a way
couples have met in the past few years, and the concomitant recent decline in
the central role of friends, it is possible that in the next several years the
Internet could eclipse friends as the most influential way Americans meet their
romantic partners, displacing friends out of the top position for the first
time since the early 1940s."
The internet no w has become so advanced that it is become
important to those who are looking for potential partners in groups where the
supply is small or difficult to identify such as in the gay, lesbian, and
middle-aged heterosexual communities.
Rosenfeld further added that ," Couples who meet online
are much more likely to be same-sex couples, and somewhat more likely to be
from different religious backgrounds."
