Abstract
This study explores the role of the Internet in reconfiguring marriages, introducing couples that meet in person and later marry, through a set of online surveys of married couples in Britain, Australia, and Spain. The study found that a sizeable proportion of online married couples in each country first met their spouse online, usually through an online dating service, chat room or on instant messaging (IM). This was more the case for younger couples. Moreover, the study indicates that meeting online is likely to introduce people to others whom they would not be as likely to meet through other means. The Internet might well open people to more diversity in their choice of a partner, such as by introducing individuals with greater differences in age or education, but with more similar interests and values. These findings are preliminary, but suggestive of significant social trends and indirect implications of social networking in the digital age.
Highlights
This study explores the role of the Internet in reconfiguring marriages, introducing couples that meet in person and later marry, through a set of online surveys of married couples in Britain, Australia, and Spain
The three country surveys explore a number of other issues, such as how married couples use the Internet within their relationships, but this paper focuses primarily on data collected on who meets online and how this might be reconfiguring marriages in the network society
Social networking sites are becoming more prominent in linking people through common friends and social networks, and likely to grow in their relevance to dating and partnerships
Summary
This study explores the role of the Internet in reconfiguring marriages, introducing couples that meet in person and later marry, through a set of online surveys of married couples in Britain, Australia, and Spain. This paper examines the prevalence and patterns of Internet-enabled meeting and marriage across each of these countries It focuses on who meets online and how this might be reconfiguring marriages in the network society. Bi-annual surveys of use and non-use of the Internet in Britain have examined those who create new ties through the Internet and under what conditions these online ties migrate to face-to-face settings (di Gennaro & Dutton 2007; Dutton & Helsper 2007) These surveys, the Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS), collected data in 2005 and 2007, using a national probability sample survey of individuals aged 14 and over in Britain. Did Internet users meet new friends online, about half of these individuals have gone on to meet one or more of these virtual friends in person
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