While there are a lot of dating sites on the Internet that charge for membership, free dating sites are becoming more and more common. With the ease of using a website to meet other people interested in hooking up in real life or online, are more people straying from committed relationships? Do free dating sites just add to the problem of divorce? These are questions that come with the rise in free dating sites.
With so many struggling in the current economy, free online dating sites are becoming more popular all the time. One of the largest free dating websites (PlentyOfFish) boasts that they receive over a billion pageviews a month. As you might imagine, that's quite a lot of money even if the website is making only pennies per page view. The question, though, is whether PlentyOfFish and other free dating sites should have a responsibility (either morally or legally) to help protect people that use their websites to find and meet people in the real world.
The Gun or the Shooter?
Should free dating sites like PlentyOfFish be compared to a gun - only bad when they're misused by people? To take that analogy further, you could ask yourself what type of gun it would be. For instance, is it a gun with a safety (a site which checks registrations and ties people - via credit cards - to accounts) or is it one without a safety that could "go off" at any moment? Is it an automatic (can people sign up for more than one account?) or semi-automatic (there are limits to the number of accounts people can make.)
There are a lot of questions surrounding free online dating and whether or not they're simply a tool capable of being misused or if they're something that's contributing to the breakdown of American relationships. The truth most likely lies somewhere in between the two.
In the future, it may be important for free online dating sites to help verify members and hold them accountable for trying to ruin people's lives. For the present, though, more and more people are jumping online to use free social sites like PlentyofFish to find people to meet in the real world. With that in mind, here are some tips for online dating.
Ethics of Online Dating
While it's pure speculation to say whether or not sites like Plenty of Fish contribute more to good or evil, people like Founder and Chief Executive Markus Frind are growing richer by the minute by creating tools that allow people to "hook-up" very easily. Should there be accountability for websites that offer this type service?
With stories like the recent Craigslist murder hitting the airwaves and the Internet, people should strive to be even more cautious with their personal information online. One of the best things you can do to protect yourself is to only give out information to people you trust. How to build up that trust? Here are a few good ideas to follow:
* First Steps First - All communication should be kept online at first. Through the website's means of communication will most likely be your first means of contact. This first impression will tell you a lot.
* Email - After you've made first contact and have decided if you want to pursue anything with the person, you should exchange email addresses. Be sure to use one that doesn't identify you personally.
* Phone - After email goes well for a while, it's natural to progress to phone conversations if both parties are agreeable. You should remember that this is very personal information, though, and should only be given out to people you think you can trust.
* Public Meeting - After phone conversations go well for a while, meeting in a public place is the recommended next step.
* And then? - After that, it's pretty much up to the consenting adults. That said, if you're married or are in another relationship, you should make the other person aware of this. This could be a deal breaker for them if you are. Honesty is the best policy.
As you can see, there should be a natural progression when you're meeting someone online. If someone tries to jump from step 1 to step 5, there might be a potential problem in the future. Is PlentyofFish good or evil by providing a free service that has the potential to be misused? The answer may be different for all of us. Does it come down to whether the website is considered a "hook-up" site or a legitimate online dating or matchmaking site? What are the exact definitions for those two types of sites?
As you can see, even the hint of answers leads to more questions. As more and more answers to these questions are found, it will be interesting to see if any laws are put onto the books to control and protect people who use free online dating services to hook-up or try to meet their soul mate. Until then, it's best to approach any site on the Internet with your guard up and your eyes open, releasing personal information slowly and carefully, especially on free dating websites.
Internet Dating & Online Dating
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