While meeting a crush for the first time may be daunting, Facebook and other social media outlets may have made it easier for some of the millennial generation by simply typing and clicking ‘send.’ This ease has been expressed by some Keene State College students. Annie Flynn, a sophomore at KSC, said she thinks the increase of technology has changed dating over the years.
Flynn said, “It’s so easy and quick to access someone else through the Internet. I think it provides for a less romantic and less personal way of meeting someone. Social media has affected the younger generation to communicate more through technology than in real life.”
According to The Huffington Post, experts are split on whether technology helps or hinders interpersonal connections. Professional matchmaker, Alison Green told the Huffington Post, “When it comes to dating, it is a matter of being grounded, realistic and understanding what technology’s uses are for and what face-to-face is for.”
Green continued and expressed she thinks effective communication is essential to the success of any relationship. Social media devices like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter are frequently used to meet people when too uncomfortable to approach it a public setting.
Green said, “I know people who have broken up or stopped dating because when they’ve come face-to-face, they can’t communicate at all.”
Green continued and stated she thinks technology gets in the way of relationships, particularly in the Millennial Generation, people ages 18 to 30.
A long-term KSC employee, who asked to remain unnamed said, “There is a difference between how people in younger generations interact with one another than how people in my generation interact. People go into things too quickly. There is no waiting for communication and there’s an impatience with it. I think younger generations feel more immune to technology and I wonder if they can handle down time and alone time.” Flynn said she believes starting a relationship with someone has become more difficult due to technology and othe circumstances.
She said, “I believe that getting into a relationship now is harder than in the past. For people in my generation, dating is different than when my parents started dating in college. Several of my friends have used Facebook or Twitter to meet someone and sometimes it led to casual hookups. I’ve noticed that the majority of people my age would prefer to introduce themselves through social media rather than in person because of that fear of getting denied.”
According the study by The U.S. Based Pew Research Center in 2010, 62 percent of millennials are connected wirelessly to the Internet when they are not at home or work and 65 percent of millennials are disconnected for just one hour a day or less.
Nonetheless, individuals in the older generation can be guilty of such behavior with the use of technology. According to the Pew’s Internet and American Life Project Studies, 39 percent of American adults who are currently “single and looking” have used an online dating website.
The study shows the Internet has made it easier for single people to make themselves available and meet someone by creating an online profile, especially for those who are not into the bar scene.
“It is all too superficial. What somebody writes on their online profile could very well just be different than the truth or be what they hope they are. People have higher expectations and a laundry list of what they are looking for in someone. It’s like a kid in a candy store and they’re allowed to take any candy they want. This candy’s good, this candy’s not,” the KSC employee explained.
Jordan Crowley can be contacted at jcrowley@keene-equinox.com