Online Dating: The Current Status-and Beyond

摘要

Finkel, Eastwick, Karney, Reis, and Sprecher (2012, this issue) have provided a remarkably comprehensive, thoughtful, scholarly, and timely monograph. It is also extremely impor-tant. As the data they cite show, online dating, particularly in developed countries, already accounts for a substantial propor-tion of the initiation of romantic relationships-a proportion growing at a rate suggesting it may soon account for the major-ity of such meetings. Thus, online dating is significant as a major social phenomenon. More crucially, the quality of our close relationships is the single biggest contributor to personal well-being and one of the largest contributors to health and longevity. Thus, understanding a phenomenon that is changing the landscape for the formation of such relationships bears on fundamental issues in human life. (As an aside, this mono-graph also contributes to the basic science of relationships by offering a wonderfully thorough and up-to-date review of the research literature on key factors in romantic attraction and on the predictors of relationship success.) Frankly, although my original intention was a quick read while waiting for the take off of a plane I was on, I found myself so engaged that by the time I had read it (and often reread sections while making a zillion little notes), the pilot was announcing it was time to prepare for landing.