Online dating has become a new way for two people to meet each other in the twenty-first century.

According to statisticbrain.com, men make up 52.4 percent of online dating users whereas women make up 47.6 percent. According to publicbookshelf.com, recent surveys show that “two out of every five single persons in the age group 24-50 use or have used online dating.”

While online dating websites such as OkCupid, eHarmony, and match.com tend to be used for serious relationship building, hook up apps such as Tinder have grown popular amongst a younger crowd.

The dichotomy between the opinions of the older generation and current generation, which occupies the student body at SUNY Buffalo State, differs significantly.

Media production major Michael Peters, who is returning to college at forty-two, said he believes that the way young people meet nowadays is different from how people met back in his youth.

“You had to actually physical meet people, whereas with online apps, you fill out a survey and hope some database matches you properly through some cosmic algorithm that someone came up with,” Peters said.

Peters also said he believes that matches were made through mutual acquaintances as opposed to filling out a form. Meeting people and making a first impression is the system he used.

“It was stronger, making the connections 20-some odd years ago because you actually had to meet people and talk to them, but today we can throw a level of science and database matching,” he said.

Although Peters believes that online dating is the way of the younger generations, students in the age group of 18 to 22 think differently.

“Online dating is not for people of our age, they’re for older people who have jobs and don’t have time to mingle like we do as college students,” said junior media production major Trevor Magloire.

Aside from the age aspect of online dating, some students find the idea to be fairly creepy.

Jimmy Arzu, junior business major, thinks of the catfish phenomenon when he hears online dating, which is when someone pretends to be someone they are not online, thereby creating a false identity.

“You might bump into a transsexual, and I’m not into that,” he said.

Arzu has never used online dating but believes that this method is used for people with insecurities.

Magloire would disagree.

“If there is a connection, there is a connection whether or not it is on the Internet or in person, why should it be different?” he said.

Matchmaking apps such as Tinder have also grown popular. According to Business Insider, there are more than a billion swipes on Tinder every day. The article goes to say that 50 million people use Tinder every month.

College students seemed to share a similar belief about Tinder.

Senior political science major Ashley D’Amico said she thinks people she has came across on Tinder are creepy.

“To be blatantly honest, if you want to f— , you go on Tinder,” she said, adding that her experience using Tinder was creepy and she only used it as a joke.

Margloire believes that Tinder is for shallow people.

“It is completely based off of looks, I stopped using it because I think it is for shallow people,” he said.

Senior health and wellness major Zach Reed also thinks that Tinder is just a hook-up app.

“Most people on Tinder are young, if that is what they need to hook up then whatever,” he said.

What do you guys think? Have you or someone you know had a personal experience with online dating or Tinder, and what was the outcome like? If you want to share you story, send an email to the address listed at the end of this article.

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