Free internet dating sites have been around for more than a decade. But the internet is constantly growing and changing. The biggest and most recent boom in the net's development? Social networking. More and more people are using the internet as their main way to share their interests and their lives via social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook. And a natural evolution of that sharing is, of course, meeting new people. Through these sorts of sites, you make new friends, meet friends of friends, and are exposed to people you might not meet otherwise. It can be a lot of fun.
But just because social networking sites expose you to a wide range of people doesn't mean that they can replace internet dating sites. Want to meet new people and not sure whether to use social networking or internet dating? Read on of an overview of them both.
Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites have a lot going for them. In general, the membership numbers of sites like Facebook are quite a lot higher than the membership numbers of internet dating sites (over 175 million on Facebook alone). They tend to be free to use, and have a huge range of extra features, such as news, games, the ability to listen to music, finding new friends through referrals from old friends, etc.
Social networking sites also give you a lot of insight into the lives of the people you meet. You get to see photos of their lives and travels, and see what kind of people they interact with on a day to day basis. In general, a person's profile on a social networking site can give you a great idea of who that person is.
Internet Dating Sites
There are a couple of things, however, that are seriously lacking on social networking sites: resources and focus. And the lack of these things can make it difficult to use social networking for internet dating.
Let's start off with focus. The reason why internet dating sites work so well for finding a partner is that all their members are focused on more or less the same goal. When everybody on a particular site is there to find a partner, one of the most important questions when you meet somebody new is eliminated from the equation: yes, you know that they're single and searching, because that's why they're on the site. And so are you.
A strong focus on romantic relationships also bleeds into other areas of an internet dating site. Yes, all the people on the site are looking for somebody. And that fact is reflected in their profiles. On a site like Facebook, you might learn a lot about a person's interests and lifestyle. But you probably won't learn much about what they're looking for in a partner, or how they look at the world romantically. Discussing these topics is an intrinsic part of internet dating, making a dating profile a combination of the best of both: you learn about a person's life, yes... but you also learn how they would like a potential partner to fit into it. This is the kind of information you're not going to find anywhere else.
Internet dating sites also provide more dating-specific resources than social networking sites. For instance, here at Datepad we have tons of articles about love, sex, and relationships, along with personality/lifestyle-matching and communication tools that will streamline your search. We even have a Communications Requirements tool in place that allows you to limit who can contact you or even give you a nudge online to only those people who would pique your interest romantically. Everything that you need to search efficiently and effectively for a partner is in place.
It's probably true that social networking sites are better than paid dating sites for finding a partner. They're free, and they have plenty of resources. But in the end, free internet dating sites (like Datepad, of course) offer their users the best of both worlds. Just as with social networking, daters can use a free internet dating site with zero cost and meet a huge number of people. But unlike social networking, your ability to meet compatible people who are looking for the same things is very high. Free internet dating sites combine what you love about social networking with an environment that's serious, focused, and informative. When you have all the tools you need to find that special someone right at your fingertips, your search gets a little extra boost that it just can't get anywhere else.
