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Online Dating Often Leads to Marriage, Study Shows

by Kaiser Hwang on February 17, 2009 at 01:29 PM

We may have thought it was awkward, or even silly, when sites like Match.com, Dating Direct, and eHarmony first launched, but guess what? They work. According to a study conducted by consumer group Which?, one in five people who've used dating sites have gone on to marry someone they met online. Furthermore, more than half of the 1,504 people surveyed had been on a date with someone they met online.

And really, is this any kind of surprise? How could knowing more about someone before meeting, and then getting to know each other through e-mails before meeting in person be harmful? Okay, there are the risks of meeting a crazed psycho, but honestly, we all run that same risk when meeting someone at a bar. Better yet, some of the dating sites like eHarmony and Parship require you to complete an exhaustive personality test, significantly increasing the odds of you meeting someone with similar interests.

Take for instance Robert Hammond, a 51-year-old worker at Leeds University. "Parship appealed to me because to join you had to complete an hour's worth of psychometric questions about yourself and interests," he told the Daily Mail. "It means you instantly bypass all those people you are least likely to get along with." He's currently on track to marry author Martina Bund after meeting on the site.

If anything, online dating has received a substantial amount of credibility in the last few years. And this doesn't just include dating-specific sites -- we can't tell you how many people we know who've gone on dates after meeting on MySpace and Facebook. So are we all for online dating? Hell yeah. But just like in real life, we urge you to take the proper precautions for safety. Have you tried online dating? Was it successful? Let us know in the comments! [From: The Daily Mail]

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Tags: dating, health, love, online dating, OnlineDating, relationships, surveys

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