Online Dating Study: User Experiences of an Online Dating Community

Introduction and Study Overview

Increasingly, human interactions are being communicated by means of electronic, Internet-based medias. Readily available programs and websites facilitate easy transference of messages, thus rendering space and time irrelevant. The quick, efficient manner of Internet-based medias allow for easy access to users who want to examine a lot of content in an organized format within a short amount of time. This concept is ideal for facilitating online dating networks where users seek to explore many users with the same intimate-based goals for using the community. Online dating communities are a growing industry, like social networking sites, and are similar in that they both provide interpersonal communication with others over the Internet. In contrast to social networking sites, online dating communities are tailored specifically to users who are looking for a romantic partner, connection, or encounter. In the following research study, I aim to examine user’s experience of the online dating community, Plenty of Fish (POF). The experience a user has is based upon their reasons for participating, the level of their involvement in the community, and the qualities the community offers to its users.

As for delimitations, I will focus specifically on the free online dating community, Plenty of Fish, and users who are aged 23-30 living in Ottawa, Ontario. This age group was selected with the anticipation that participants would be out of school and beginning careers. At this stage in life, individuals tend to lack the social outlets generally used to meet potential partners. That is to say, they are freshly out of school, new to their careers and are frequenting bars and other social functions less than they once were.

Concerning limitations, this pilot study provides only a micro example of the experience of an online dating community. It will only take into consideration the experiences of 4 users from the Ottawa, Ontario Plenty of Fish community. Included in this sample size are 4 men between the ages of 23 and 30. Although this sample will provide only a snapshot of a very particular area (city of Ottawa and the Plenty of Fish community) from the male point of view, it demonstrates the overall phenomenon of online dating communities and will display concepts common to the general experience of online daters involved in Internet dating communities.

This is a hermeneutical phenomenological study wherein the central purpose is to interpret and describe the user’s experience of the Plenty of Fish online dating community. This deals with the user’s reasons for joining, their activities and usage of the community, their perception of the community, and their opinions of positive and negative aspects of the community. Within this perspective, my position as a researcher constantly be taken into account because my view of the topics and content found will naturally impact the interpretations I make. I will be making interpretations based on the lived experiences communicated to me in a textual form via MSN Messenger by users of Plenty of Fish. Based on these interpretations, I aim to describe the essence of the online dating phenomenon within the context of the Plenty of Fish community.

This topic was arrived at because of my interest in exploring Internet-based interpersonal communication. Aiming to arrive at a more concise topic, I selected online dating because of my interest and curiosity about this phenomenon. Not having any personal experience of utilizing online dating communities, my interest is founded in the concept that such an inherently human and private matter of finding a romantic partner is being administered in a public, online domain. Having heard about this particular site, POF, from various friends and coworkers, I considered it to be a good community to select as a context for user’s experiences. Although it is an international website, users are grouped according to their local area, unless they wish to search users in a different, specific area. Membership in this community is free, which differentiates it form other major dating communities like eHarmony, LavaLife or Match.com. The users of a free community may be less serious, or less involved with utilizing the service compared to users who pay to be members of an inclusive community. The free quality of Plenty of Fish could also mean that it has a more diverse body of users due to its inclusivity.

Societal changes have caused the most private of matters to be taken online. Online communities of users seeking romantic connections by displaying themselves not only as users, but as a potential partners, is a signifier of the liberal, technologically-dependant era we are currently in. The prevalence of online dating is also a signifier of the over-stimulated and excessive nature of current society. Generally, society is accustom to having wide varieties of everything from cereal to cars to choose from, and online dating contributes to this notion because it provides a large body of potential lovers to choose from. Choosing an online love interest allows users to be very picky in terms of the qualities they are looking for in a partner. Online dating is also a signifier of the time-poor society we live in because it allows users to “shop” for a lover at any time that is convenient for them. Further, the nature of online dating communities allows users to examine a huge variety of people within a short period of time, especially compared to the time it would take to sift through the same amount of people in “real” life.

This study will contribute to the existing knowledge of online dating communities because it is a micro example. This study focuses exclusively on one community, Plenty of Fish, and only examines users from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Although existing studies have looked into online dating as a phenomenon and examined user’s experiences of the communities and reasons for joining, they have been more broad-based and quantitative in nature.

There are terms that hold specific meaning within the context of this study. I will outline them here:

Online dating community: Within this study, this term means an interactive body of members who are active participants. A community differs from a website because of the multifaceted nature of the site itself and because members interact with one another through the site, as opposed to just accessing the content of the website.

User: Within this study, a user is an individual who holds membership in the POF community. They have signed up for membership by providing their personal information, creating a username and making a profile. By doing this, they grant other users access to their information, and likewise, are able to access the information of other users.

Plenty of Fish (POF): The online dating community examined in this study. It is free and allows for the grouping of users based on geographical area of residence, age, gender, sexual preference, and interests. This community contains a database of users, a search engine of users, an internal messaging system wherein each member has an inbox, a service to match users based on predetermined information, and a tool to see which members have viewed your profile.

Profile: A page used on Plenty of Fish as a representation of each user. It contains their personal information and pictures.

Review of Literature

In looking for background and supporting information for my study, I searched The International Journal of Qualitative Methods, and the Journal of Phenomenological for relevant content through the University of Ottawa library e-journal database. A hermeneutic study called, “Flirting on the Internet and the Hickey: A Hermeneutic” was available in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods. The International Journal of Qualitative Methods contained, “Internet dating: a British survey”. The Journal of Phenomenological Psychology contained, “Dating & Intimacy in the 21 Century: The Use of Online Dating Sites in Australia”. The three studies differ in their approaches of examining online dating, but each contributes a valuable perspective to take into consideration when forming my study.