Social Media & Dating – Building a Relationship Online

Social Media and Dating – Building a Relationship Online

Believe it or not, online dating isn’t something new, as a matter of fact computer dating started back in 1960’s way before Match.com. Yes, you read that right, in the 60s! The 1960s online dating carried many of the same pitfalls and thrills as virtual matchmaking does today.

Computers existed in the ’60s, in some form just not personal computers, but they were computers nonetheless. These machines could crunch the numbers on our personalities and spit out intimate matches. Sites like Match.com perform a similar service now, only with more pictures, interactivity, and complexity.

But in the 1960s, what was known as “computer dating” which involved no Internet and most times no visuals. People would submit their vital statistics along with completed questionnaires sent by mail. Not e-mail, of course, but old-fashioned, stamp-licking snail mail.

There was no instant gratification because people literally waited patiently for days, weeks, and months as companies processed their answers on intelligence, attractiveness, quirks, and preferences, and would perhaps find them matches the hope for true love.

Computer-dating services became popular and grew steadily as did the price of a share of IBM stock. These “punchcard-plotted introductions” cost anywhere from $5 to $150. Oftentimes there was a sigma attached to it, so couples who met by computer tended to be embarrassed and even hostile.

If they admitted to family and friends how they met, they were often met with comments such as “you needed a computer to find a date, what’s wrong with you?”

Fast forward to online dating today and with all the changes that have been made with online and computer dating very little has actually changed. On this Podcast, my special guest Devin Spady is a Blogger and author of “Swiping Right – How We Connect, Communicate and Love” and we discussed lessons on building relationships and finding love by a millennial for a millennial in the age of social media.

Click this link to listen to the Podcast.