Marriage in the age of internet

We often hear marriages are made in heaven. But can you hear internet marriages? Yes, through the internet one can identify the overabundance of choice of potential partners and it is the source of online looking for a stable relationship! Now meeting online [particularly meeting through online dating websites] predicts faster transitions to marriage.

The pertinent question is the effect of Internet technology on a relationship can be stable/longevity or turn out to be a marriage formation? How do the Internet and social media technology affect our romantic lives? The association between Internet technology and relationships tend to be more positive, neutral, or negative!

No doubt, internet-based social media and cellular phones play an increasing role in our personal and social lives. Most of the thinkers and scholars do disagree about whether the new technologies improve or degrade the commitment and longevity of our primary relationships. According to internet skeptics suddenly wider choice set of potential partners available online could undermine marriages and other primary relationships.

One of the most prominent Internet skeptics, has argued that the new technologies have robbed us of the skills to be effective listeners in face-to-face interactions. If the Internet undermines our relationships, then the social effects of the Internet are to be feared. Though other scholars view the Internet as having a more positive role to play in personal and romantic relationships.

The obvious question does arise --- whether meeting online is associated with higher or lower rates of breakup and higher or lower rates of transition to marriage. Also, couples who met online and offline have similar rates of breakup. This should be demonstrated in the right spirit to get the correct picture.

It has been predicted that the larger the choice set available to people, the lower the quality of decisions that individuals make will be and the worse they will feel.

One of the key theoretical ideas is the choice overload that invoked to explain why Internet dating might yield lower-quality partnership matches and also why Internet dating would undermine existing romantic relationships. According to views of the people who are experienced online dating on romantic relationships are presumed to be less permanent and more disposable. It has been observed that couples who met online progressed to marriage more quickly.

The study showed that meeting online is especially common among gays, lesbians, and middle-aged heterosexuals, groups that have difficulty identifying potential partners in the offline world.

No doubt the technology is aimed to search across large choice sets to find the particular kind of partner [whether by demographics or by acquired characteristics] and that is why internet dating is theoretically efficient. But theory predicts that larger choice sets would result in weaker romantic matches and more relationship instability, also the theory argues that larger choice sets should lead to better matches and therefore to more stable romantic unions.

It has been advised that among the internet dating sites that cater to people looking for relationships rather than for hookups. Before the first date via Internet dating profiles, potential partners may have taken weeks or months exclusively and the information gathering process should be counted from dating to commitment to marriage.

With the technology revolution, the internet is a boon but too much time spent online by youth is a concern. Internet use and social life are two important aspects and without a social life, there is a constant fear of community loss. Associated with internet use is modest but greater Internet [Internet addiction] use significantly turn negative changes and it happens when there are -- less family communication, more loneliness, and more depression. Also, urbanization and industrialization are the technological changes whose impact on the community.

It has been predicted that internet technologies would undermine the stability of primary romantic relationships. As per the survey of divorce lawyers, finding that 68 per cent of divorce cases involved one party meeting a new love interest over the Internet.

However, How Couples Meet and Stay Together (HCMST) surveys found no differences in breakup rate or relationship satisfaction by whether the couple had met online or offline, but it is found that couples who met online were more likely to break up 2.46 times higher than the couples who met offline.

As we are living in higher levels of technology and browsing the internet and connecting to the world at our fingertips, where family relationships, relationship infidelity, ease of exchanging information and online dating can develop more quickly. The study found that those who are dating people who overshare on social media tend to have lower relationship satisfaction.

One of the key advantages of Internet dating is information gathering from the potential partner’s profile. There are websites responsible for matching all engaged couples who met online. According to The Knot 2019 Jewelry and Engagement study, 22 per cent of couples meet online and end up getting engaged and others like OkCupid and Bumble.

Conventionally, social interactions are more engaging during internet dating and there is obvious marriage choice and couplehood in the age of the internet. But there is a possibility that an affair can go by other names as well, depending on the type of affair involved. So, one should be more specific and be more careful while in a romantic relationship.