11% of American Adults are Online Daters

In 50 years, will blind dates and office romances become mostly a quaint reminder of the past?

In the nonstop evolution of the information age, it’s the newer dating arenas like dating sites and mobile phone apps that are continuing to grow in popularity.

A new study by the Pew Research Center found a considerable number of Americans have embraced these online options.

Researchers studied 2,252 adults about their own dating history and their preferred methods of meeting someone.

“Taken together, 11 percent of all American adults are ‘online daters,'” according to the report. “Online dating is especially common among the college-educated. Thirty-eight percent of Americans who are currently single and actively looking for a partner have used online dating at one point or another.”

“Two-thirds of mobile users said they’d been

on a date with someone they met online.”

The research is some of the earliest to also include mobile phone apps.

According to the report, 3 percent of the population has tried a mobile dating app.

Of those Americans who have used a dating app, two-thirds said they’d been on at least one date with someone they met online.

One in five of those indicated having met a spouse or significant partner that way.

According to Pew, the number of Americans who know someone who met a long-term partner online has nearly doubled since 2005.

While use of such platforms is growing, the potential for misuse appears to still be firmly in hand. Of those surveyed, more than half indicated encountering someone who misrepsented themselves.

Additionally, more than a third of users reported having come across the profile of someone they knew personally.

From: The Pew Research Center.