Mike Kent presentation: Dating, Romance and the Internet
Trends in online dating:
- Fee-free ad-supported sites are becoming more popular
- Added value becoming more popular on these sites. (Buy chocolate and Flowers, stats on online dating strategies)
- The age of users online dating is increasing
- Separation is taking place to the advantage of niche markets (sexual orientation, race, religion)
Popular dating sites in Australia
- RSVP
- EHarmony
- Lavalife
- Adultmatchmaker
- Match
Example Match: Sign-Up is for free though, meeting a match costs a fee. This strategy leads to lots of registrations, inflating the match database. This database at the same time is the source of the commodity sold (the match searched by members of the same database). Match creates it's venue from its members.
Funny Niche sites are:
MatureGolfer, Singlemomsndads, Sugardaddie...
Religious, Racial and Cultural niches:
Christiansoulmates, Avemariasingles, Blacksingles...
Danger for dating sites definitely comes from Facebook. The reason is that Facebook users also experience that this Social Networking Service is a great way to date other people. Also see dating reading in this blog.
Dating sites linking or referencing to other related sites, it turns out to actually be the same ownership, but different make-up. (Fake diversity)
Subject: CHEATING
Where does flirting stop and where does cheating start?
There are sites that claim that they can reveal online cheating, others help with broken relationships and other others provide a museum of broken relationships: brokenships.
Mike talks about the tension between normal/everyday and the abnormal/unusual in dating.
Comment: I don't think that there is a tension online as there is an element of secrecy that cannot be maintained in the open.
While you may play different roles in different CMEs, you can also use them to reveal your true self. While most people are themselves in RL, some have to play a role to camouflage their real self to avoid being isolated or stigmatized because of their being different from what is commonly accepted.
Although not really a serious reference, this gives an idea of what I'm talking about: Niche “Inter-Generational Attraction”
Comment on slide Media Coverage, about online dating:
The headlines provided by Mike might be true, but if you have a hard look at them they fit perfectly into Channel Nine News and any gossip magazine you find at the cashiers of Coles and Safeway. The point I am making here is, that there might be an element of truth about some of the articles, but my experience tells me that a lot of articles are made up simply to sell higher publication numbers.
Important point in Summary: Power
Especially when revealing yourself (your details, other private information, your sexual references etc.) you pass on the power of knowledge about yourself to others. You cannot prevent them from using your data.
Comment on point in Summary: Community
Mike refers to the fact that people always look for certain members of the community. He further says that it is an interestingly constructed community.
I agree, but there is no real difference between the online and the offline community. It always relates to what I accept as my community. There are so many different facets of community. One is the community I travel to work and home with everyday on the bus and the commuter train. Although I recognise many of them every day, I don't feel like I have to interact with all of them. I choose to pick the ones that I relate to. Those are usually the ones who I work with and who take the same train. I deliberately construct my community.
It's the same with my home community. I have relations with certain members of my community. Again I construct my community.
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