Name: Brittany Lucero
Age: 22
Hair color: Dark Brunette
Eye color: Coffee brown
Weight: 126 lbs
Height: 5'3
Pet Peeves: Those who make
noises when eating bananas, arrogant personalities, liars, carnivores...
What you are looking for
in a life partner: Pants that fit
Describe yourself: fun, social,
interesting, beautiful, PERFECT.
When we think of
online dating sites, answering simple questionnaires about ourselves comes to
mind. We get to put our information out in online application form in hopes
that somewhere, someone is compatible with us. We can manipulate our answers to
be more appealing, or put so much detailed information to ensure we are
facilitating a companionable match. Although you may not have noticed, both of
these acts can be extremely dangerous. Today, I will take information I
gathered from various online dating articles and warn you of the many dangers
as well as tips to avoid being taken advantage of and catching a deceptive love
match. 
It all began around 1964
at the World’s Fair. Foreign pen pals inspired the machine-generated matches.
After a questionnaire was filled, it was submitted into a machine and out came
a card with a like-minded person who too filled out a questionnaire. The
technology was not all that great, but it sparked an interest for an accountant
at the fair. He had a programmer friend at IBM who had heard about Operations
Match, an online Harvard created, date maker. The two men got together and
created a prototype; The next thing they knew, they had Project TACT (Technical
Automated Compatibility Testing). It was New York’s first online dating
service.
Today, we have millions of
people using online dating services. In fact, according to Online Dating
Magazine over 40 million Americans used online dating services in 2011. That
many people spent over $1 billion in that year. That’s a lot of people and a
ton of money. People are finding compatible matches. Accorrding to Match.com, 17% of marriages in 2007 met on
online dating websites. Keep in mind, sometimes with good comes evil, and if
you want to find someone online, beware.
The University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business found
that many of the dating sites’ metadata were not protected. This means that
photos that you may post in your profile could be GPS tracked! That potential
danger was eventually spotted and now being fixed by many sites; however, not
all sites have complied to protect all your information.
In addition
to having your information not always fully protected, strangers, or “potential
matches” could be predators. We have all heard about the Craigslist Killer, but
there are others who could take advantage of you in other ways. For example,
Albert Lovering pleaded guilty to 23 counts of theft. Man
Guilty For Taking Advantage Albert acted like he was interested in these
women romantically but over the course of his conversation, he manipulatively
made these women believe he was in financial trouble. He gained over two
hundred thousand dollars from these online dating victims.
People are
not the only ones who can take advantage of you in the online dating scene. The
online dating website Zoosk began releasing relationship advice, date
discounts, and even, with the help of a behavior analysis, advertisements
directed to those on the verge of a break-up that reads quotes about never
ending love. That’s right; there’s an app! How manipulative!
With all of
this negative information about how dangerous and scheming some of these sites
can be, some sunlight shines. Not only have websites cracked down on privacy
issues (including three major ones) and warnings to members concerning exposure about too much information, but
also, PsychCentral listed the online liar characteristics to better help catch predators. Some of these characteristics include those members who avoid using the pronoun "I", those who do not have a lot to say simply because the less they talk, the less likely they are to mistakenly contradict a lie. One interesting observation that should be noted is that men were more likely to lie overall, but women lied more about their weight. (Surprise, surprise...)
To conclude, when it comes down to it, online dating doesn't have to be calculating and entirely unsafe, as long as you're safe and aware of what to look for. If you are not educated about the true signs of a predator, ways company's could take advantage of the personal information you release, or the risk you are taking to make sure you don't end up alone and lonely, your online dating experience may not be what it is QUACKED up to be.
Until next time, thanks for reading!!!
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