Selected news stories about the Pew Internet Project and articles citing our data.
Online daters hopeful in search for love
3/6/2006 | 
Coverage
Dan Thanh Dang, The Baltimore Sun
'"Cautious optimism is alive and well in the world of online dating.
Just ask Judy Lederman. In September, the public relations executive from New Rochelle, N.Y., met the perfect man on JDate.com: He was an Orthodox Jew, director of a nonprofit group, simply gorgeous and nice. Sparks flew. They shared dinners, long walks in the park and endless conversation into the wee hours of the night.
Lederman, who is fortysomething, was happily introducing her online find to friends and neighbors as "my new boyfriend" for about two delightful months -- until his wife popped up, wanting to meet the woman who was trying to break up her marriage.
"It was so humiliating," says Lederman, who is divorced and has been dating online for about a year. "He told me he was separated for a year and in mediation to get a divorce. That hurt. It took me awhile to get over that. ... But now, I'm back out there online. There's a part of me that keeps saying that I've got to get it right, eventually."
Many of the people surveyed say they've had mostly positive experiences with online dating, but a surprising 66 percent agreed online dating is dangerous because it puts personal information online.
Furthermore, 57 percent believe a lot of people who use online dating sites lie about their marital status, according to the survey. Pew based its findings on telephone interviews with 3,215 adults across the nation last fall.
"It shows, I think, that people are complicated," Lenhart says. "There are a lot of unexpected and confusing findings, but maybe that encapsulates what it's like to be out there dating in this day and age. It's about trusting people, wanting to meet people, but all the while knowing that it's not always safe and knowing that people aren't always truthful. Online daters are realistically optimistic, I think."
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