| Courtship used to be based on face-to-face contact; however, with the internet, immediate proximity is no longer the required starting point for romantic connection. Due to the increased popularity and uses of the internet, it has become a social norm to utilize it as a way to meet a romantic partner via online dating sites. Although online dating has been advertised as a utopian way to meet potential partners, the reality remains that negative outcomes are common through this method of online socialization. Increasingly, the psychological community are researching these negative outcomes slowly, but gaps remain. This dissertation presents interviewed participants who provided testimony about their significant negative experiences with online dating. This study provides qualitative data and provides a way of understanding this lived phenomenon, which addresses some of the gaps in research about online dating. A discussion of the research implications of this dissertation will be provided as well as an overview of the literature to date. |
