In a world where technology is constantly rising and improving, young adults and adults are seeking romantic partners online.

A Recent Survey

In a survey of 205 Biola students, 62 percent said they do not use any kind of dating website or app. Of the 128 students who said no, 41 stated they were already in a relationship, 26 said they did not believe the process of finding a partner worked or the concept of finding partner online was unethical.

However, 38 percent of Biola students have used a dating website or application. In total, 51 percent of students claimed to use the website or app out of boredom, 27 percent were searching for a true relationship, 11 percent to meet for sex and 9 percent to promote business.

A study conducted by Pew Research Center surveyed 1,060 teenagers from the ages of 13 to 17 and found only eight percent of teens found a romantic partner online. However, 26 percent said they had never met a romantic partner online and the final one percent declined to comment.

Student Opinions

Sophomore Bible major Sophia Johnson has never used a dating website or app since she would prefer to meet a possible significant other in person and not immediately be involved in a romantic relationship.

“I’m the type of person who doesn’t always start off looking for people to be in a relationship with,” Johnson said. “When I meet someone even, I’m not automatically like, ‘Wow I’d like to be in a relationship with you.’ I develop a friendship with somebody and then over time I decide like, ‘Hey, I want to invest more deeply in a different type of relationship.’”

Like Johnson, Braydon Stewart, senior computer science major, does not think he will find a relationship online since he would not understand non-verbal cues and be able to genuinely connect.

“If I was to find someone that I wanted to date I don’t think I would find them through a website. I feel like a lot of my strengths is reading people and seeing how they are in person so you lose some of that in electronic media,” Stewart said.