Everyone wants to have a partner with which they have common interests, lots of fun and most important, a long lasting relationship. Nowadays, more and more people find a partner at online dating sites such as Lexa or eDarling. Are these sites the future of dating or are they developed because people become more picky? Are they just too shy for offline dating? Or does is have another cause? Fact is that, according to Lexa.nl, people find love in the online dating world every 45 seconds!
In an interview Dr. M. L. Antheunis which is a researcher and lecturer at Tilburg University, shared her vision on online relationships. As a teacher in online relationships, social media, CMC and friendship formation, she is an expert in online dating and broadens de knowledge and vision that people have of online dating sites. She currently studies they possibilities of having eye contact during computer mediated communication (CMC) conversations by using an eye catcher (In the film fragment below, Dr. M. L. Antheunis is talking about her study and how this study was set up). Because of the face to face contact via the eye catcher in CMC conversations, the features of offline and online conversations are becoming more alike.
Plausible is that the eye catching possibilities become accessible for everyone in the future. For the online dating world, this could mean that two people can have personal eye contact while getting to know each other. By only using a computer people can select a partner based on common interests, personal characteristics, appearance and also personal eye contact. Why would you still want to go to a bar to find a partner while it becomes so easy to find one by using a computer?
