Cyberdating

Cyberdating, or online dating, has come to be understood as the use of particular Websites to find people for romantic or sexual encounters or relationships. These sites, commonly called dating Websites, allow users to search for others with whom they think they would be compatible. Dating Websites typically have users fill out a profile describing themselves for the benefit of other users who will come upon them while browsing or searching. New mobile technologies allow these and other technologies for dating and sex to be available wherever a mobile device travels and a network signal is available.

Dating Websites have their antecedents in the conceptions of cybersex, or computer dating on the early Internet. Even before users widely navigated through the online world through the World Wide Web, the Internet's architecture allowed for social uses of the medium. Multi-user dungeons, bulletin boards, chat rooms, Internet relay chat, and other ways for people to congregate and communicate on the early Internet allowed users to develop rapport with one another. Often, these interactions allowed users to develop computer-mediated attractions to [Page 54]or relationships with other users. The early Internet allowed people to experience relationships and sex virtually, without touch or physical intimacy.

The Oxford Internet Institute surveyed 12,000 couples worldwide with access to the Internet to determine how many had used online services to look for their partner during the time period 1997 to 2009. The study showed that 30 percent of those people had used dating Websites in 2009, an increase from 6 percent in 1997.

(http://Photos.com)

As the Web interface for the Internet became the standard way of experiencing the Internet, the medium began developing an emphasis on communicating information via visuality. Thus, cybersex has slowly eroded as the dominant way of thinking about the relationship between the Internet and dating and sex. Now, as social networking sites, scanning software, and amateur photography and videography allow people the opportunity to upload and share visual representations of themselves online, the dominant mode of social networking online is visually based.

Most dating Websites allow users to create a profile for themselves. Central to this is the profile picture, which is often part of a gallery of images that show the user in various situations and states. Dating Websites allow users to create profiles with pseudonyms, not unlike instant messaging handles or e-mail aliases. The dating Website profile usually allows users to describe themselves in a free-response section of the profile. Other fields may be available for users to describe more fully themselves, the type of relationship or sexual experience they are seeking, their ideal partner, their typical night out, or their favorite books, television programs, and movies. Often, there are questions that can be answered with predetermined choices, such as age, body type, height, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, smoking, drinking, attitude toward pets, “level” of relationship (long-term, friendship, or casual sex), and, sometimes, desired attributes in a mate. In the case of sites specifically designed for sexual pursuits, penis size, fetish types, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status, and other sex-related fields are made available. Often, these predetermined answers preclude the expression of bisexual and transgender identities.

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