Online Dating

By Katie Cincotta

Looking for love is the stuff of epic films – sweeping sagas of lovers destined to be together, despite war, poverty and enemies. For every lonely single, the potential for a grand Hollywood ending, remains a constant hope. Even when dating has moved at lightning speed, from family introductions at Sunday church to cyber profiles that announce your personal details online to other singles searching for a perfect match.

The dating timeline: from dance halls to cyberspace

In the 50s and 60s, baby boomers found love in dance halls – where girls in floating skirts and boys with slick Brylcreem hair could slow dance to The Righteous Brothers and dream of marriage and a white picket fence.
Then the free-loving 70s gate-crashed all those wholesome family values, and the dating mood got hotter, with partners hooking up at rock concerts, protests and bohemian benders – advocating the ‘try before you buy’ philosophy on sex, love and marriage.
By the 80s, lovers were just as excited about corporate power as building wealth in property and the stock market – many of them meeting at the office, city nightclubs or through well-networked friends with little black books bursting at the seams.
But leave it to the 90s – the last decade of the momentous 20th century – to revolutionise the dating world. It’s here that the Internet reached its peak for global communication, opening up a virtual singles bar, where people from all over the world could meet online and begin a relationship by email or real-time chatting. It was the age of love online, and all you needed was a computer, internet access and the courage to announce your eligibility.

Plenty of fish in the virtual sea

Now in the noughties of the new millennium, online dating is as commonplace as heading to a bar, the gym or a BBQ to meet someone. Because let’s face it – it’s getting harder to find the man of your dreams who’s not already hitched with two kids, or the woman who looks better to you than J.Lo, even without makeup in the morning. The pace of life is fast, and while we’re busy working, or hibernating from smug couples, we’re wasting valuable opportunities to bump into a soulmate.
Australia’s most famous social commentator Bernard Salt has the figures to prove it, and it seems there’s truth to women complaining that it’s hard to find a man these days.

Australia is officially in a “bloke drought”, says the demographer, revealing in his KPMG Population Growth Report 2005 that 30-something women are outnumbering men by 20,000.
The reason for the imbalance is globalisation, with young men heading overseas to larger economies for work.
Of course, that’s the perfect reason to head online to find them, with the information superhighway directing you to singles from all walks of life. According to internet statisticians Hitwise, Australians are now visiting more than 1000 different dating sites in any one week, confirming that there are plenty of fish in the virtual sea. In fact, the Australian Dating category is almost as popular as Weather and Property websites and slightly more popular than Employment and Computer Hardware – which means we’re definitely as interested in love, as we are in work.

And as the saying goes, all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy. And Jill is really keen to meet someone who might like bushwalking, movies or at least a good Parmagiana at the pub.

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