Yes, the internet is a good place to find a romantic partner
The internet is relatively young and so is the idea of online dating and finding a potential romantic partner using the internet. However, even with its young age the internet has proven to be an effective place to find a romantic partner. The sheer amount of data that has been collected from a number of surveys shows that a large and steady growing number of people are meeting online, getting married, and possibly most importantly are happy and satisfied with that said marriage. One such recent study that highlights meeting online is more prevalent and may lead to more happier marriages was done by John Cacioppo the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished service professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago. (Harms, 2013) According to survey results published in the paper, “Marital satisfaction and break-ups differ across on-line and off-line meeting venues.” By Cacioppo, more than a third of all the married individuals between the years 2005 and 2012 reported to meeting online. (Cacioppo, Cacioppo, Gonzaga, Ogburn, & VanderWeele, 2012) These findings show that the internet has now become a viable place to meet and marry a partner opposed to the much more common way of face-to-face introduction. The satisfaction of these marriages as well as offline marriages was also questioned in this survey. According to Cacioppo et al. (2012) marital breakups were around 7.6 percent of the individuals who met offline while only 6 percent for those who met online; offline marriages received a score of 5.48 on a satisfaction survey while online marriages received a slightly higher score of 5.64. The satisfaction scores were based on a survey that questioned the individuals about the happiness of their marriage as well as the grade of affection, communication, and love for their partners. The analysis of those two numbers is very convincing that the Internet has become a good place to find a romantic partner because the end goal of most romantic relationship is to not only marry but also stay married and have a satisfying marriage. These numbers as a whole have only increased in the past decade and only look to do the same in the future possibly giving way to a more predominant culture of finding a romantic partner online.

No the internet is not a good place to find a romantic partner With all the data that was given that shows the growth success and satisfaction of online marriages it is still not a very worthwhile way to find a romantic partner. The environment that the online dating world creates is not very healthy and has been seen by many prestigious psychologists as a negative atmosphere. It can also be dangerous due to the possible exploitation of the data that you post by the dating sites themselves or by individuals on those sites. According to a review written by several psychologists including Eli J. Finkel Ph.D.”…specific things the online dating industry do [sic] undermine some of its greatness.” (Gardner 2012) These specific weaknesses stem predominantly from the emphasis on “profiles” rendering from the researchers. (Gardner 2012) Profiles are not a practical way of choosing a partner because of the features located on a profile truly do not give an actual representation of that person. Profiles that are more similar does not guarantee that a connection or spark can be made in a face-to-face interaction. These profiles are matched to one another using a number of algorithms that have no current evidence on their effectiveness so matches are most likely just a random collection of local individuals that are using the same site. Finkel and his colleagues go on to say that, “…these algorithm based services may encourage a ‘destiny’ mindset that prizes initial compatibility over other important factors…” (Gardner 2012) This just supports the idea that these sites force you to look for a perfect profile instead of the people themselves. Online dating to