The Digital Era Hits Your Love Life
It's not something to keep secret anymore! Many single women are turning to dating websites like eHarmony, Match, and OkCupid to help them fix what is often the hardest part about dating: finding the guy in the first place. After all, it is about matching supply and demand, and if the real world doesn't work, well, the virtual world offers an interesting–and often successful–channel for meeting men. But you can't help but wonder: do online dating sites work? Our dating site reviewwill help you answer that question.
Do Online Dating Sites Work?You've seen those eHarmony ads of happy couples holding hands and laughing–then you visit the site and stare at the monthly membership fee. Yikes. Is it really worth it? And what about those free dating websites for women? Does a free dating site necessarily mean you'll get lower quality matches? You'd be surprised at just how different dating websites can be. Everyone's heard of Match, but there are other sites that have a lot to offer. Let's examine two of these sites and compare them to see which fits your style–specifically,OkCupid and eHarmony.
OkCupid is not for the shy. The sign-up process takes five minutes and, bam, you are immediately thrown into the mix of singles. These men are pretty bold in reaching out to you through the wide variety of communication channels offered by the site which include email messages and instant messages (which makes the experience feel more "live"). Another great thing is that the website offers a lot of transparency: you can sift through men's profiles yourself (unlike some other sites that keep them behind a dark curtain). OkCupid also has fantastic local search functions, which makes it very easy to find guys in your neighborhood that you can meet up with. Within a couple days, you could feasibly have five dates lined up!
As opposed to OkCupid, which might seem like an online version of your local nightclub, eHarmony is more like a structured ballroom dance: there are rules to play, and not everyone can participate. First of all, the site takes a couple hours to sign up for properly. This can be seen as annoying, but actually it's a good filter so that only those who are serious about dating will end up on the site. Also, only those who can afford and are willing to pay the monthly membership fee are allowed to join. Second, the "curtain" is present: you must trust the site's algorithm because you can only see profiles that are matched to you. You can't search yourself, and you can't just jump on a guy and IM him. You and your match take turns answering a set of questions in several rounds of "communications" before you can finally talk more freely to them. Third, given that many members of the site are looking for long-term relationships (as opposed to OkCupid, whose members seem to have a wide variety of intentions) you have to really dig deep into each person's profile since a lot of them appear quite "normal" and similar to each other. Lots of men have pictures of them with adorable dogs or babies, as if this somehow makes them a better candidate. But the quality of men is certainly high, especially if you are looking to settle down.
Now that you know more about dating websites for women, get out there (virtually speaking) and start dating! Try the dating site that best fits your personality and comfort level. It can be a fun activity and who knows? Maybe you'll end up on one of those happy commercials one day.
