Dating in the Social Media Age

Perhaps it’s because I’m simply a curmudgeon. Perhaps it’s because the more I use emerging technology, the more I dislike and then resent my own reliance on it. Whatever the case, I believe social media is having an adverse effect on personal relationships. People don’t seem to connect to each other like they did only 5-10 years ago. Instead, many times they talk to each other in only small texts, tweets, or status updates, while many of them are holding their own CSI-type investigations of the other person.

Let’s face it. Dating is pretty hard to begin with. It gets harder when you leave your mid-20′s behind and you find yourself will actual responsibilities. Does it seem to anyone else that using social media sites like Facebook or Twitter is a regression when it comes to the dating scene?

Samuel Axon writes a blog for Mashable.com. He focuses on how Facebook has changed how people date:

http://mashable.com/2010/04/10/facebook-dating/

Posts on people’s social media pages can make people jealous. “OMG, did you see the picture of Jake on his vacation to Florida? Who is that girl standing beside him?” “Why did Molly change her relationship status to single? We were supposed to go out tomorrow!” Plus, there are a lot of Internet sites out there you can use to learn about a person’s past, even to the extent of running a background check on that person.

As cranky as I am, I honestly have no problem with how people meet each other. I don’t think it’s weird if people meet on an online dating site (I know there are still some that do), on a blind date, at a bar, or through mutual friends. Finding another person that makes you happy is what most people want.

It just seems to me that a lot of people are ruining their chance to find that happiness through their own insecurities and the access many social media sites give those insecurities to run wild.

Aaron

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