"In a survey of online dating users, over 80% share concerns that others misrepresent themselves" (Hancock & Toma, 2009)
A major drawback to online dating, as now
exemplified on MTV’s Catfish, is the lack of honesty that often occurs with
online dating. With online dating, users are primarily concerned with how they
are viewed and perceived by others, their possible matches, if you will and
this often leads to inaccurate self-presentation. (Kang & Hoffman, 2011)
Even though trust is an important issue and often negative factor in online
dating, the number of people who online date continues to increase. Another
drawback to online dating is the perceived risk that the love interest may not
amount to anything offline. (Bercovici, 2014) Online dating is the online environment where users fear deception the most (Hancock & Toma, 2009).
Research from the past eight years has shown that 86% of online dating participants have felt deceived or mislead at some point in their online dating experiences. Deception can refer to simply exaggerating about details about your life, to outright lying, and in the most extreme cases even using someone else's information and creating a fake profile (Hancock, Toma, & Ellison, 2007).
Walther's hyper personal model is one that has been used in various research to explore how online dater can use computer-mediated-communication (CMC) to their advantage in deceiving others. Walther's model poses that users can use CMC to engage in selective self-presentation which is not as feasible in face to face interactions (Hancock, Toma, & Ellison, 2007). The online environments' facet of asynchronicity gives the users the "relaxation time" to decide how to present themselves or respond when communicating with others (Hancock, Toma, & Ellison, 2007). This can be seen as beneficial or negative, as it gives the user the ability to take time in responding and not feel rushed, but can me used negatively if the person chooses to use it to deceive the person they are communicating with.
Deception is one of the most salient issues related to online dating (Toma & Hancock, 2012). Online dating is more than creating a profile with a blurb of information and some photos. Individuals invest time, hopes, and often money into these online dating sites in hopes of finding a match. The risk or fear of being deceived is sometimes high enough to turn people away after a bad experience or even after just hearing a bad experience.
Deception has become such a fear with online dating that webpages have been developed like DontDateHimGirl to warn women about men who are deceptive and misleading on dating sites. For women, major areas of deception include weight, age, and physical appearance where major areas of deception for men are educational level, income, age, martial status and height (Epstein, 2007).
One of the disadvantages between online dating and in-person dating is difference in time it takes to meet and socialize with the potential partner. If you meet a person in real life opposed to offline, there are less hesitations about meeting with that person again. But meeting a person online leads to hesitations and qualms about moving the relationship into real life. The more and more people online date, the more the users want an easier and faster way to meet the person in real life (Bercovici, 2014).
Other than MTV's Catfish, another online dating scam in the news from 2012 is about Notre Dame Football player Manti Te'o, who was the victim of an online dating hoax. Though the woman trying to pull the hoax over on Manti took it too an extreme extent with faking her death, she eventually came clean about the truth to Manti. Here's an ABC news clip with more about Manti Te'o's tale of being "catfished".
Research from the past eight years has shown that 86% of online dating participants have felt deceived or mislead at some point in their online dating experiences. Deception can refer to simply exaggerating about details about your life, to outright lying, and in the most extreme cases even using someone else's information and creating a fake profile (Hancock, Toma, & Ellison, 2007).
Walther's hyper personal model is one that has been used in various research to explore how online dater can use computer-mediated-communication (CMC) to their advantage in deceiving others. Walther's model poses that users can use CMC to engage in selective self-presentation which is not as feasible in face to face interactions (Hancock, Toma, & Ellison, 2007). The online environments' facet of asynchronicity gives the users the "relaxation time" to decide how to present themselves or respond when communicating with others (Hancock, Toma, & Ellison, 2007). This can be seen as beneficial or negative, as it gives the user the ability to take time in responding and not feel rushed, but can me used negatively if the person chooses to use it to deceive the person they are communicating with.
Deception is one of the most salient issues related to online dating (Toma & Hancock, 2012). Online dating is more than creating a profile with a blurb of information and some photos. Individuals invest time, hopes, and often money into these online dating sites in hopes of finding a match. The risk or fear of being deceived is sometimes high enough to turn people away after a bad experience or even after just hearing a bad experience.
Deception has become such a fear with online dating that webpages have been developed like DontDateHimGirl to warn women about men who are deceptive and misleading on dating sites. For women, major areas of deception include weight, age, and physical appearance where major areas of deception for men are educational level, income, age, martial status and height (Epstein, 2007).
One of the disadvantages between online dating and in-person dating is difference in time it takes to meet and socialize with the potential partner. If you meet a person in real life opposed to offline, there are less hesitations about meeting with that person again. But meeting a person online leads to hesitations and qualms about moving the relationship into real life. The more and more people online date, the more the users want an easier and faster way to meet the person in real life (Bercovici, 2014).
Other than MTV's Catfish, another online dating scam in the news from 2012 is about Notre Dame Football player Manti Te'o, who was the victim of an online dating hoax. Though the woman trying to pull the hoax over on Manti took it too an extreme extent with faking her death, she eventually came clean about the truth to Manti. Here's an ABC news clip with more about Manti Te'o's tale of being "catfished".