From today’s Wall Street Journal:
While many happily married couples say they may never have found a mate offline, there are already indications that meeting a spouse on the Web comes with its own set of potential pitfalls. Some divorce cases, for example, highlight false claims made in the online profiles that led to the initial attraction. In addition, of course, there are the natural perils that can come with getting to know a person virtually instead of the old-fashioned way.[...]
The quest by dating Web sites to keep passion alive is all the more urgent because demographic statistics would suggest that the first wave of divorces among online daters is just now beginning. The median length of a first marriage that ends in divorce is eight years, according to a Census Bureau survey released last year. Online dating took off in 1995, with Match.com celebrating its 150th wedding two years later. By 2002, this style of dating had become firmly entrenched in the cultural mainstream.[...]
Though there is no statistical evidence that the break-up rate among online daters is any different from the national average, some divorce lawyers point to anecdotal evidence. Eric Spevak, a New Jersey divorce lawyer, says that as many as one in five of his clients now comes from marriages that started on the Internet. “There’s no consequences online — people can promise you anything, so engagements are shorter and people are rushing in,” says Mr. Spevak.[...]
False claims on online dating profiles are showing up in court as lawyers use the early dating profiles — with their fibs about wealth and status — for character attacks later. Robert Hoover, a lawyer in San Jose, Calif., says he was able to wrest child custody from his client’s ex-wife based partly on allegations that she had used her younger sister’s photograph in her dating profile to trick men, including her future husband, into emailing her. “If she’d misrepresented herself in that regard, maybe she misrepresents herself in the area of custody,” says Mr. Hoover. “That was just brought up to attack her credibility.”
I wonder — how many new relationships these days start up online? Saying that 20% of all divorces involve elements of past online dating when 20% of all marriages occur after meeting online….well, that wouldn’t be that surprising a statistic.
Personally, I’m happily married, and even happier that I have no reason to deal with the dating scene — online or off — at any time in the foreseeable future.