America is becoming more diverse, and interracial and interracial couples are becoming more common.
Now consider online dating, which gives you the opportunity to meet complete strangers.
I started thinking about this question from my own love experience. My boyfriend and I first met on a dating app. I’m Asian and he’s white. Before using dating apps, I only dated men with similar backgrounds to myself and didn’t really think about it too much. I wondered how much my past partner choices were influenced by this. My social environment is overwhelmingly Asian.
Looking back, I think that if I hadn’t used a matching app, my chances of meeting a partner would have been extremely low. Like many others, I’ve been frustrated with my online dating experience. Multiple studies have shown that most people who date online don’t like it. But there are also clear advantages. Online dating took me out of my comfort zone and forced me to be more open-minded.
Research suggests the effects are real.first couple People you meet online are more likely to be biracial and biracial than people you meet offline for the first time; According to a 2020 study that analyzed data on Over 3,000 U.S. couples from 2009 to 2017.
In another 2017 study, researchers used real-world data to find that online dating contributed to the rapid diversification of society by creating bonds between people that would not otherwise exist. I have provided evidence to suggest that this is the case. After controlling for racial diversity, we found that U.S. locations with better internet access had higher rates of interracial marriage. The authors say this suggests that online dating is at least partially responsible for the rise in interracial marriage.
This figure shows that interracial marriage is on the rise in the United States.
Still, anyone can use dating apps to actively seek out potential partners of the same race. In reviewing the data provided to me by Coffee Meets Bagel (a dating app for people seeking serious relationships), I found that people of all races and ethnicities found that they were more likely to “like” the profiles of partners with whom they liked. Online dating only opens doors. People have to go through it.
Can online dating change people’s minds? In 1967, when the Supreme Court ruled that interracial marriage was legal across the United States, public sentiment about marriage between white and black Americans changed. The approval rating was less than 20%.
What percentage of Americans express support for black-white marriage in 2021?
This graph shows Americans’ support for interracial marriage.
Support for interracial marriage rose sharply in the mid-1990s with the advent of the first online dating sites, rising to 94 percent in 2021.
Support was most pronounced among young people. 98% of Americans ages 18 to 29 approve of interracial marriage, compared to 91% of Americans 50 and older. Not coincidentally, young people are also more experienced with online dating.
In fact, since the advent of the Internet, the way people date in America has changed dramatically.
In 1995, 2% of couples met their partner online for the first time. How many couples met online for the first time in 2017?
This diagram shows how online dating has become a popular method of dating today.
We’d like to think that romantic relationships should develop organically from existing social networks, but for a growing percentage of Americans today, that path is no longer available. Online dating has become less of a choice and more of a necessity. When you get past the app’s inevitable frustrations, one of the benefits is that it allows you to fall in love with people you never would have met without using the app.
It’s not only good for us, but it’s definitely very good for society as a whole.