"What's Love Got to do With It" Blog

Emotional impulse and physical attraction can sometimes lead to bad marriages.  Some people in today’s culture view marriage as a form of dating.  They feel like that if the marriage does not work out then they can just get a divorce.  However, marriage is really a commitment to the other person regardless of the emotional side of it.  When a person commits to marriage they claim that they will stay together “till death do us part,” meaning that no matter what happens they will stay together.  In Anjula Razdan’s “What’s Love Got to do With It,” she explores how people’s view on marriage and the dating culture has changed.

            Razdan claims that online dating is much more sufficient than the regular way of meeting people through everyday life.  While for some people that way may be quicker and easier, there is no still no alternative to the experience and knowledge gained by dating people in person rather than online. A person would not be able to tell what they wanted in their significant other if they did not have to experience “old-fashioned” dating.  Also sometimes people that are alike and have the same interests are not always the best matches.  My ex-girlfriend and I were complete opposites, but we ended up being really good for each other.  We had a lot of fun together, but then we had to move on because of college.  I would not have even known what I was looking for in a girl if I had not dated her.  I had no clue what I was looking for prior to meeting her.  While online dating can be beneficial to people who already know what they are looking for because they have already experienced dating, it is still necessary to go through the experience so that they can figure out what they want in a relationship.

            Online dating has also taken some of the physical attraction out of dating.  While there still pictures that the other person can see, those pictures can also be enhanced or of completely different people.  Therefore, while on an online dating website, you cannot always trust the physical attributes of a person forcing you to focus more on personality.  Online dating marriages have been seen as more successful because they take out the impulse marriages and cause the couples to focus more on personality.  Also results are kind skewed when the studies are conducted because most people on online dating sites are looking for someone that they can marry and spend the rest of their life with, while people who get married that did not use dating websites, could have been more of an impulse move based on a personal attraction.  While online dating takes out the physical attraction, it is still not as beneficial as “old-fashioned dating,” because that is how a person finds out what he or she is looking for in a significant other.

            Online dating can be sufficient for some people, but it cannot become the primary way of dating.  There is no replacement for trial an error in dating, which can only occur in person.  The best way to learn is from failure, and through online dating, there is not much possibility for failure causing some people to never know what they really are looking for in a relationship.  While online dating is a good service, it should not be the primary source for dating.