Online Dating... Increasing Our Love Lives?

It's that time of year again... Valentines Day is right around the corner. Dating has proved to be a very expensive form of entertainment and companionship. It doesn't help that the last 5 months have been a time of turbulence in our wallets. Nearly 600,000 jobs were lost in January alone. We have accumulated a national debt of $10.7 trillion and counting. The Dow is down more than 2,200 points from only 5 months ago. But despite the economic crisis, romance has been flourishing. Both online and offline matchmakers are reporting that their business is up. Match.com reports its strongest fourth quarter in the last 7 years. Many brick-and-mortar companies are reporting an increase in business, some up to 40%.

There are a few reasons for this increase in the search for love through third parties. Unemployed and underemployed people have more time for things like searching the web. Online dating is a relatively inexpensive way to meet people. It allows you to get to know a person without wasting an entire dinner just to find out you have no interest in them whatsoever. Organized dating events are also cheaper than original dating. It allows you to meet multiple potential partners all at once, cutting down ten dates into one. Dating has become so expensive that people cannot afford it anymore. The old fashioned way of just going out to a bar at night has become impossible for those who are monetarily strapped. Alcohol is expensive and not a guaranteed tool to work. Speeddate.com,a free online dating site, reported an average of about 80,000 virtual encounters a day in October. Today that has been bumped up to 130,000, a 60% increase. Match.com has seen their membership grow 17% in December, despite the $34.99-a-month charge. Perfectmatch.com had a 30% increase in January. Love-seekers were not turned off by their $50-a-month fee. Duane Dahl, chief executive of Perfectmatch.com, noted that the situation is quite similar to the last economic downturn in 2001.

An increase in traffic at the beginning of the new year is no surprise. This is pretty typical behavior in this industry. Finding someone to spend your life with is a common New Year's resolution. But this year seems to be different. The economy has put a lot of people out of work leaving them with plenty of time on their hands and not a lot of money to burn. Online dating seems to be the perfect activity to fill the void while hopefully fulfilling their resolution.

Original Article from nytimes.com:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/fashion/12dating.html?_r=1&ref=fashion