Internet changing how people meet and get marriedIt is not always that people meet online and get married, but a new study shows that the Internet could be a place where you are assured of finding a perfect mate and enjoy a great marriage. According to the study findings, couples who met and married online were highly likely to stay together and be happy compared to couples that met in the old fashioned style.

Starting a romantic relationship online

Even though the difference wasn’t as big as such, there were a large number of couples who had met online and ended up getting married. However, marriage researchers were quick to add that the study had some few weaknesses. Nevertheless, John Cacioppo, a renowned lead author of University of Chicago added that the study should comfort those who were fearful about meeting on the Internet. Most people hold the idea that the Internet isn’t the best place where one could start a romantic relationship. Cacioppo is the director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience. According to him, this should be an encouragement for people not to feel odd in any way but authentic especially those who are extremely busy and not able to meet their partners in other ways.

The Internet has created a new world and a new environment and there is nothing that people need to fear. When undertaking the study, an Internet based dating service by the name of eHarmony was commissioned to undertake a survey on the Internet of over 19, 000 people in US who had married from 2005 to 2012 and married to partners of opposite sex. The result findings of the survey were verified by independent statisticians. Considering that these marriages were relatively recent, the rate of separation, which stood at 2.5 percent and divorce, which was 5 percent were considerably low. As per the research findings, it was found that over a third of surveyed people had met their spouses on the Internet. Out of this, 45 percent had met via dating websites and 21 percent had met their partners via social networks such as Facebook.

Online marriages: Divorce and separation

The research also showed that people who had met their partner offline had high chances of being very young, very old and also not wealthy. Also, chances were also high that these people met one another at work represented by 22 percent, via friends- 10 % and at school- 11%. The research also showed that of those who had met offline, 7.6% of them got divorced when compared to just 5.9% of the people who met online. The same difference still existed even after researchers adjusted the statistics in order to account for the low or high numbers of people with some similarities such as income or age. Besides, people who married after meeting online had happier marriages even though the study didn’t exactly show what a happy marriage exactly means.