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Science Marriage is more likely through online dating?
Science Marriage is more likely through online dating? | Marriage is more likely through online dating? |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Sunday, 24 August 2008 | |
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Page 2 of 2 A “History of eHarmony” is found at OnLineDatingMagazine.com. Time.com must be pretty disgusted at eHarmony.com to make it one of its top five websites to avoid, out of millions of websites out there on the Web. (The Time.com article would make one believe its name should be, instead, called eharm.com.) Boutell.com says: “And in February 2007, the Netcraft Web Server Survey found 108,810,358 distinct websites.” The Time.com article “Sites to Avoid: eHarmony” states: “Our main beef with this online dating site is its power to cause utter despair. eHarmony claims its more "scientific" approach to matchmaking differentiates it from competitors — its users complete extensive personality questionnaires, in order to connect them to others based on compatibility. In early 2006, eHarmony announced that more than 16,000 couples had married during the previous year as a result of meeting on the site, citing a 2005 Harris Interactive poll. That's about 90 people finding love every day, a track record bound to inflate expectations.” “On a more typical dating site, where users are prone to making snap judgments based on photos and sketchy profiles, if you don't find that special someone you're less likely to take it personally. It's easier to shake off because, after all, that's hardly the real you up there on that site. But if you've taken the time to answer eHarmony's 436 compatibility survey questions and paid its premium charges ($21 to $60 a month, depending on how many months you prepay), and the site then delivers terrible recommendations — or worse, rejects you as unmatchable — what do you tell yourself then? The company's advice, to stick with it for several months to improve your odds of finding a soul mate, sounds all too self-serving (the longer you use the site the more you pay). The site also discriminates against gays.” See Time.com article “Is eHarmony Biased Against Gays?” Author’s note: This article might be a good example that conclusions need to be verified numerous times. The conclusions here may well be valid, and verified many times over. However, it would be nice to see additional information on this study. Where did these 10,000 people come from? Were they randomly collected from marriage records? Where did the other couples find love, besides, the Internet, at work, and through friends. Just because “one” research study concludes something, doesn’t mean it is true. If “many” (“numerous”) research studies state the same (or similar) conclusions—then you can feel “more” confident that the conclusions are valid. This is why research is ongoing (maybe even continuous) on, for example, the effects of global warming and climate change on the Earth, humans, animals, plants, etc. In addition, it is also the reason why research is ongoing all over the world in all facets of science, business, education, and every field of study in the world. One research study doesn’t a conclusion make!
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