Online dating Essay

Online dating which allows individuals, couples and groups to make contact and communicate with each other over the Internet, usually with the objective of developing a personal romantic or sexual relationship. Around 30% of America’s 80 million baby boomers are single. Since 2003, several free dating sites, operating on ad based-revenue rather than monthly subscriptions, have appeared and become increasingly popular. These advertisements are nothing but merely deception. The way it works is impractical and unrealistic. I’d say it is one of the most passive ways that some lonely person sitting on his couch all day can find the fantasy woman of his dreams. Advertisers use different methods to attract consumers in an effort to entice them to buy their products. E-Harmony, an online dating service, uses a form of deception to attract the consumer in an attempt to lure the person into signing up for their dating service. Their practice is not entirely deceptive, but is for the most part. The ad portrays two people, blissfully in love. With brightly lit smiles while gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes, each person explains how he or she found their own true love by using this service. The e-Harmony success story continues as they explain how the person they are madly in love with is simply perfect for them in every way. Love and romance practically jumps out from the ad. The ad is somewhat deceptive because it makes it look like all a lonely person who is looking for a meaningful relationship has to do is go to e-Harmony, and he or she will instantly find true love. Yes, it is possible to find someone using this service but it is not realistic. People who use the service go through a longer process, meeting different potential partners, getting to know them and more than likely moving on to the next prospect. The ad makes it look too easy to find someone to be involved with in a serious relationship. By placing the entire focus on the ultimate goal, and exaggerating the potential end result (two people madly in love) plays on the viewer’s emotions. Someone who is in this situation may be vulnerable, so being subjected to the image of lover’s ultimate bliss, may cause him or her not to think rationally. That picture of two exceedingly happy lovers is what that viewer may yearn for to the point of believing what the ad sells, an expectation that is more than likely too high.