Meeting Online or Offline? Patterns and Trends for Co-Resident Couples in Early 21st-Century Britain

Abstract

Data from the 2010–2012 National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL-3) are used to document trends and patterns in where co-resident couples in Britain first met, focusing specifically on the rapid rise of meeting online, which both echoes and differs from a corresponding US increase; in Britain, meeting online largely appears to have substituted for meetings in settings to which access is relatively unrestricted, for example, pubs and public places. While meeting online appears widespread across British society, variations are identified and linked to ideas from the online dating and place of meeting literatures. Offline partner availability and how well the processes within offline and online settings suit particular types of people are interpreted as underpinning many of these variations. Perhaps surprisingly, meeting online does not appear class-related, and involves levels of socio-demographic homogamy that do not differ systematically from those for compositionally heterogeneous offline settings.

The demography of swiping right. An overview of couples who met through dating apps in Switzerland

“…Does a large and more easily accessible supply of potential partners, as well as an appeal to novel audiences [6], make dating apps a virtual social space more likely to encourage exogamy? Empirical studies have found that Internet-matched heterosexual unions display less within-couple similarity in terms of education, race or religious background [10,34], especially compared to unions created in typically homogenous settings, such as school, circles of friends, or family [35]. Most studies, however, were unable to single out the specific effect of dating websites or apps on exogamy, and largely focused on couples formed via the Internet in general [34], or through dating websites and apps jointly considered [10].…”

Internet as a Meeting Place for Spouses: Online Dating, Homogamy and Assortative Mating in Contemporary Italy

“…In contemporary Western societies, the number of spouses meeting for the first time online has grown dramatically, siding (and in some cases surpassing) traditional meeting places such as school, work, neighborhood, and frienship (for a summary, see Lampard, 2020).…”

“…The delayed marriage can result in the partner being found out of the educational system, which is one of the main marriage markets (Sabotka & Toulemon, 2008). The general shift toward a service economy also makes it possible to make use of marriage services carried out by professionals, who have also been able to reduce the social stigma associated with those who use them (Ahuvia & Adelman, 1992;Lampard, 2020). Using the Internet to find a partner has become a socially accepted practice (Smith & Duggan, 2013).…”

“…Similarly, analyses would benefit from having information about population groups that make specific use of technology to find partners (e.g., divorcees, seniors, single parents, people with disabilities, persons with specific sexual orientations and interests) (Baym, 2015;Sautter et al, 2010). It would also be interesting if there were large enough samples to allow multivariate analyses relating online dating to other characteristics -especially stratification related factors such as social class, education, age, and territorial dimension (Cacioppo et al, 2013;Lampard, 2020).…”

“…Returning to digital technologies and their impact on family and marriage, the Internet is one of the venues where a partner can be met, whether in places used for activities such as gaming, chatting and sharing ideas, or in specialized dating sites and apps 2 . Studies investigated how many spouses first met on the Internet and empirical evidence documented an increase in the number of couples who first met online in several western contemporary society (for a review, see Lampard, 2020). Another question concerns the sociodemographic characteristics of those who met online, the quality of the marriage that is arranged, and the likelihood of divorce, especially compared to couples who met offline (see, among the others, Cacioppo et al, 2013;.…”