Disintermediating your friends: How online dating in the United States displaces other ways of meeting

Michael J Rosenfeld; Reuben J Thomas; Sonia Hausen

doi:10.1073/pnas.1908630116

Disintermediating your friends: How online dating in the United States displaces other ways of meeting

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Sep 3;116(36):17753-17758. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1908630116. Epub 2019 Aug 20.

Authors

Michael J Rosenfeld¹, Reuben J Thomas², Sonia Hausen³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Sociology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305; mrosenfe@stanford.edu.
² Department of Sociology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131.
³ Department of Sociology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.

Abstract

We present data from a nationally representative 2017 survey of American adults. For heterosexual couples in the United States, meeting online has become the most popular way couples meet, eclipsing meeting through friends for the first time around 2013. Moreover, among the couples who meet online, the proportion who have met through the mediation of third persons has declined over time. We find that Internet meeting is displacing the roles that family and friends once played in bringing couples together.

Keywords: Internet; dating; disintermediation; friends.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Adult
Female
Friends*
Humans
Interpersonal Relations*
Male
Social Media*
United States