The whole world has already been swept by the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic. After a slight lull in the spring-summer of 2021, we can now see the situation escalating again, despite the active vaccination of most populations. With the advent of new strains “Delta” and “Omicron”, people have again begun to close themselves off from each other more, move away from friends and loved ones and limit offline communication. Some have become complete recluses, and likely as a result the number of people suffering from loneliness has increased by 10-20% in the last year alone in many European countries.
Meanwhile, for some, the pandemic has turned out to be a positive phenomenon. This certainly applies to the dating industry. Just look at the growth statistics for recent years.
- Global income from online dating in 2017 was $779 million, but in 2021, $1.02 billion.
- The number of users of dating sites and apps in 2019 was 19.7 million people, and in 2021, 234.1 million people.
- In 2020 alone, when the pandemic was at its peak and strict quarantine measures were enforced everywhere, the dating industry generated a total of $2.23 billion.
Today there are more than 8,000 online dating services in the world. And it seems they’re definitely not in any danger of a shortage of users. But does this mean that these sites are especially efficient and convenient? Or that they are not without some disadvantages? Of course not!
Problems with modern dating sites
- Communication on the Internet is becoming impersonal. Unfortunately, that’s true. We no longer see real people behind profiles on social networks or on dating sites. As a result, conversations become unemotional, samey and frankly boring.
- Online communication can exacerbate feelings of loneliness. Nowadays, many people already find it difficult to cope with loneliness. If that person is ignored even on the web, this could trigger serious depression.
- The abundance of scammers, Internet trolls, and unpleasant personalities on the Internet. Quarantine has locked up all kinds of people within four walls. Among them are scammers, blackmailers and those who like to troll chat partners, and many others. Communication with such people can turn out to be not just nasty, but also dangerous — your personal data can be stolen, your bank card data can be extracted, blackmail can be committed, and much more. So you should definitely not forget about sensible safety precautions on the Internet.
However, the main disadvantage of most dating sites is the lack of live communication. You can’t conceptualize the real person, you don’t feel them next to you, you can’t read their emotions and mood. Before the pandemic, this was solved very simply — interested parties made a date, met offline, spent time together, and then decided whether to give this relationship a chance or not. Now meeting offline has become more difficult, and not everyone is ready to take such risks. Firstly, many are afraid of getting sick by talking to a stranger. And secondly, in recent years, even before the coronavirus, not everyone has been in a hurry to meet new acquaintances offline.
Fortunately, you can eliminate most of these disadvantages right now. A great way to do this is to use online video chat applications.
Online video chat services are sites or applications that connect completely random users via webcam. Some sites allow you to specify your preferred gender, location of preferred chat partners, interests, and more.
If you are interested in livelier, richer, and more diverse communication, we strongly recommend that you take a closer look at video chat. Check out Omegle.com, VideoChatOmegle.Com, or Chatrandom.com. They have a large audience, fast connections, and good video and sound quality even on slow Internet connections. Most importantly, they offer all the main advantages of online dating.
The pros of online dating services
Even taking into account the above-mentioned disadvantages, online dating still has plenty of advantages. Especially for those with the right approach to internet dating. So what are these benefits?
- No geographic restrictions. The Internet is huge, with billions of users from all over the world. Right now you can communicate with someone from the next town one minute, and the next, with someone on another continent. And today there are almost no language restrictions, as the latest online translation software can translate a conversation literally on the fly. And in some video chat services, they are already built into the site or application.
- A huge number of online dating fans. In 2005, the well-known Pew Research Center (Washington, USA) conducted a massive survey to find out how people feel about online dating. Back then only 48% of the respondents said that they had a positive attitude towards them. A decade later, researchers repeated this survey. Now 59% of those surveyed said that online dating was good. If you look at the current trends, by 2025 we’ll end up with a figure of at least 70%.
- Plenty of opportunities for joint leisure activities online. Online dating isn’t just about chatting. Now there are many options to have a great time together on the Internet — multiplayer video games, group viewing of movies, TV series or concerts by your favorite bands. Or even communication in a completely virtual space. We look forward to the full implementation of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta project to see how much the very format of human communication will be changed. It’ll surely be interesting!
- Safety and the ability to get to know someone before meeting them in person. Although we live our modern lives at a crazy pace, in relationship matters, excessive haste is counterproductive, especially nowadays. Video chats, dating sites, and applications, social networks, instant messengers — all these platforms give us the opportunity to study a person in more detail, to understand who they are, what interests them, how they communicate, and what, indeed, they want from your acquaintance.
One more thing: The effectiveness of online communication and its success prospects depend to a massive extent on your own goals, preferences, and willingness to make new friends. Therefore, the described disadvantages and advantages of Internet communication are all very subjective.
What is the bottom line?
Obviously, any online dating platform, be it a classic dating site or a random video chat app, has both serious disadvantages and important advantages. There is no ideal site, and the goals of all users are different.
How, then, do you choose what’s right for you?
The best advice is to try different platforms, compare their functions, evaluate paid and free features, study the user base, pay attention to the quality of moderation and the work of the support service. Good service is made up of the smallest things. And as soon as you learn to notice these little things, you can find precisely the dating platform that will fully meet your requirements and wishes. We wish you good luck in your search and only the most pleasant interactions on the web!