Blind dates, movie nights and serendipitous meetings are one way for the average person to meet a potential significant other, but a variety of e-dating services are changing the game.
Apps like Tinder and PlentyofFish and sites like OkCupid have broadened the horizons for people seeking a relationship, giving them pictures of other users and information about user interests and common contacts.
While some still prefer to find romance through face-to-face contact, the stigma surrounding online dating has dropped significantly. According to Pew Research Center, only 10 percent of 18 to 24 year olds in 2013 used online dating compared to today’s 27 percent, nearly tripling in only a few years’ time.
Some students at Texas A&M have had success with their experiences. English junior Sarah Mangus first ventured into online dating when she was 18 after leaving a bad relationship.
Out of the sites and apps she’s used, Mangus said she prefers OkCupid.
“Tinder is fun in the way that it’s just stupid,” Mangus said. “Over the time span that I did use it, there were a bunch of guys pretending to be different people. They would post pictures of really attractive — usually white — guys. And you would start talking to them and then they would say ‘Oh well, actually this is me.’”
A woman who wished to remain anonymous due to the nature of her experience, had a traumatic encounter using a dating app. In 2015, Ashley invited a male co-worker to her apartment for a party. A few weeks after, the co-worker began sending her Snapchats of her front door and leaving gifts at her door step.
“I quit my job, cut off communication and everything because I was really creeped out,” Ashley said.
Flash forward to fall 2016 when one of Ashley’s friends found a match on Tinder. Eager to be happy for her friend, she asked to see a picture of the match and discovered it was the same co-worker she had met before.
“I would say I’m against dating apps, I’m for the old-fashioned way of meeting a person, it helps weed out the creeps easier,” Ashley said. “I would say my story is a cautionary tale.”
“It was really fun just going through different people, and within a few hours of having made the account [on OkCupid] I matched with a really cool guy — from Australia,” Mangus said. “Which led to a very long distance relationship.”
Kinesiology junior Briana advises users to remain open and honest in personal profiles. Last year, Briana said she was worried about encountering people she knew on a dating site. To solve this, she decided to post honest personal information in her bio but chose a picture of a stranger, gathered from a Tumblr search of a “pretty girl,” otherwise known as a method of cat-fishing.
“My plan was to have good conversation and then probably delete [the profile] because I thought it was whatever,” Briana said. “Well, then I started to feel bad because I thought ‘this guy is actually kind of nice and good looking’ and we actually had a connection.”
Less than 24 hours after their initial conversation, she confessed to her lie and was confronted with the harsh reality of his disappointment and anger.
“It was just me being stupid and I really think I hurt his feelings because I wasn’t the girl he thought I was,” Briana said. “I definitely learned that if you’re not comfortable putting yourself online, don’t. Don’t use anyone else’s pictures. It’s just not fair to whoever you’re talking to. Even though you might be doing it to pass time, some people really can’t find love where they are, so they go online and it’s important to them even though it might not be important to you.”
Telecommunication junior Roland Davila said he uses Grindr and Jack’d apps. Davila said his worst experience with dating services was when he found a false profile of himself. Despite his negative experience, he continues to use the apps because he feels it’s one of the best ways to connect with people.
“I feel like as a gay man in College Station, which is really conservative, you’re almost obligated to use them if you want to meet people,” Davila said. “The culture here is so odd because there’s a lot of white people here, and so it’s odd being a minority. And then I’m very feminine too, so that’s very off-putting to a very conservative group of the LGBT community, and so that’s hard to navigate because you don’t really talk to a lot of people. It’s almost a necessary evil.”
RPTS senior Cameron Watts said while dating services can help in the quest to meet people, other social media platforms can be just as likely to connect users to potential partners. Regardless of what platform users choose, Watts advises everyone to be careful.
“There’s the dangers and there’s the connectivity. I guess if it’s regulated then it’s a great tool,” Watts said. “But there needs to be protection, so there’s no people who can just be anybody they want be. It can be a really big danger, but I’m not saying it should ever deter you from trying.”