Online dating has certainly gone a long way over the past couple of decades. And there are good reasons for that, as people definitely have an appetite for a remote way for meeting new people and dating prospects. If we count other forms of long-distance dating from before the era of the Internet, such as newspaper dating ads from a couple of centuries ago, it’s hardly surprising that online dating continues to pick up steam.
As the online dating niche evolves, however, the Pros and Cons it brings with it are also slowly changing. So, if you’re just now entering the online dating scene or if you’ve been here a while and you’re wondering whether to stick around, let’s go over the Pros and Cons of online dating in 2024-2025.
Pros of Online Dating Today
1. Easy access to a large dating pool
Whether you’re from a small town or from a large metropolis, dating only people you know/meet in real-life can mean limiting yourself to a very restricted dating pool. Even the most extroverted and socially active people simply don’t know and meet that many people around them.
Yes, we all dream of finding our soulmate in high school or university, and staying with them our whole lives, but luck plays a huge role in that and many of us simply aren’t that lucky. Instead, online dating offers us a pool of thousands of not tens or hundreds of thousands of people – more than you can ever meet in person.
2. A good way to find a specific type of person
The size of the dating pool isn’t all there is to it. Today, there are hundreds of dating apps and sites out there – many more than even just a couple of years ago. And the vast majority of them aren’t just general dating apps but are instead focused on specific groups of people, particular genders and/or sexualities, certain age ranges or types of professions, and much more. Looking for LGBTQ dating – there are dating apps, such as Taimi. Are you a farmer looking for the right spouse for your lifestyle – how about FarmersD?
This hyper-specificity may seem limiting when dating people in real life, but when you have access to millions of people online, you can be as specific as you want in your search and you’ll still have lots of people to choose from.
3. You can expect (most) people on dating apps to actively be looking for dating partners
One of the big issues of in-person dating is that you can’t always be sure if the one you’re asking out is even looking for dating in the first place. This is much less of an issue with online dating apps and sites, as the people there are almost certainly looking for someone to date.
4. Online communication is a good sieve in many situations
Dating someone you’ve just met in person means you likely know very little about them and you have to go through a whole of topics in-person to get to know them. When dating online, however, you can learn a lot about the other person before you even agree to an in-person date.
Cons of Online Dating Today
1. Matching with the right person online can be tricky
Whichever dating app you go with in the end, matching with the right person can take a lot of trial and error. Finding the right person online often also takes a lot of disappointing in-person dates.
2. Online communication can leave a lot out
People lie – this should come as no surprise to anyone. So, even though online dating can help you learn a lot about the other person before your first date, it can also be deceiving.
Lies, scams, catfishing, and even more nefarious issues can easily happen on even the most trustworthy dating apps, which is why you should always be careful when dating someone online. Besides, even if both parties are well-meaning, online communication simply doesn’t offer the same kind of information and insight as in-person communication.
Overall, online dating today is certainly far from perfect. Especially for certain minority groups today, such as LGBTQ people, giving out your personal information and location online can feel risky. However, the online space always comes with risks, whether you’re dating or not, and there are ways to mitigate these risks if you’re careful. On the flip side of that, online dating offers so many benefits, that ignoring it as an option simply means depriving yourself of literal millions of great opportunities.
