12th February 2016

Love and Technology

Love and Technology

We thought that we would look at how finding love has changed over the years, ranging right back to the 1700s, when putting an advert in the local paper, as a single man or women, was the ‘new’ way to find love, to today, with online dating thriving, and ads in the local paper being a thing of the past!

Placing an advert in the paper back in the 1700s was frowned upon, it was seen as an act of desperation. However the stigma of being single beyond the age of 21 was just as bad - many would say this was a ‘lose lose’ situation! Matches made through these services found many people the love they desired, even if it wasn’t spoken about that often.

Despite the underground nature of dating in the classifieds, the new ways of communicating were making it easier. Newspapers started to provide personal ads which relied on telephone communication; Video dating was brought to us by VHS and then of course Online dating. The online dating industry has been around longer than you think, but the stigma attached over recent years has kept out of social conversation and has reduced over the years. Online dating is now considered to be almost as normal as meeting someone down the pub, hence the explosion of publicity and adverts we all see on television.

The Internet was used almost from day one. Even before the Web itself was created, bulletin board services and newsgroups played host to a variety of Internet dating activities. In addition to newsgroups and forums created for posting of personal ads, locals were meeting in city-oriented rooms and people with similar interests were meeting and becoming attached in forums of similar interest. 
Sourced at http://brainz.org/history-online-dating/

The evolution of the online dating industry has been rather dramatic!

In 1994/95, there were only 2 widely known dating sites online, these were kiss.com and match.com both of which were registered by the same person.

By 1996 there were 16 or more dating sites listed in directories.

In 1998, many more users had registered on these dating sites, helped along by the release of ‘You’ve Got Mail’, a movie which told the story of two business rivals who had much hatred for each other but fell in love over the web.

Following the spike of interest in 1998 and the positive light that was put on online dating the late 90s early 2000s provided the web with several other high-profile dating sites.

2002 saw the start of ‘social networking’ which online dating sites were a byproduct of, and by 2007 the Americans had spent in excess of $500 million on online dating!

Which brings us to today, where nearly 20 million people visit at least one online dating site every month and 120,000 marriages every year take place, at least in part, due to online dating.
Sourced at http://brainz.org/history-online-dating/

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