By Jodie Brittain - Slinky Dating Australia.
It's been over ten years since the Internet became a dating mecca, a new study finds those who have looked for relationships online have more faith in cyberspace than those who never have.
An estimated 16 million Americans have used a dating site or other site to meet people, the Pew Research Center reports; 45 percent of these have never been married. Pew found 79 percent say online dating is a "good way to meet people," and 52 percent say the experience was mostly positive. But 29 percent say it was mostly negative.
Among all Internet users -- about 145 million single people, married people or those in relationships -- opinions appear evenly split: 44 percent agree Internet dating is a "good way to meet people," and 44 percent disagree.
Findings are based on a telephone survey of more than 3,200 adults ages 18 and older, projected to the U.S. Census Bureau's estimate of 202 million adults with household phones in the continental United States.
Amy Simmons, 31, of Loma Linda, Calif., "definitely recommends" online dating, even when she has nothing in common with some of the guys the sites suggest are good matches.
"I see it as all positive, because even when there has been a negative experience, you're always getting experience in dating," says Simmons, a university purchasing agent who has dated online for about three years and has tried four sites.
Mike Manderfeld, 54, of Minneapolis also has tried at least four sites during the four years he has been Web dating since his divorce.
"I'm 100 percent behind it," says Manderfeld, an accountant who was married for 18 years.
Still, he says, he was interested in pursuing relationships with only about 10 percent of the women he met online.
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