The question I am trying to answer is “Does online dating create longer lasting relationships?” I decided to try to answer this question because I feel that traditional dating creates longer lasting relationships. Many people seem to think that online dating creates stronger relationships but based on my research I found that online dating actually doesn’t create stronger relationships. In a study done by researchers from Michigan State University and Stanford, it was found that married couples that met online were one-third more likely to get divorced than married couples who met traditionally. They also found that couples who met online were 28% more likely to breakup after a year.

I was unable to conduct a study on this questions so I ended up doing research to communicate my results. Through my research I was able to prove my hypothesis and found that overall online dating does not create longer relationships. If I had been able to test my hypothesis the following is how I would do it:

I would find 20 couples, 10 that met online and 10 that met traditionally, and I would have them come in every three months to answer a series of questions. The questions would be:

Do you ever feel frustrated with your partner?If so how often and why?Have you ever thought of having an affair while dating this person?If yes then did you actually go through with it?On a scale of 1-10 how much do you trust your partner?How much do you respect your partner?Do you feel that your partner respects you?Do you feel one of you has more control or do you have equal power?

I based my questions on three key components of a traditionally strong relationship, trust, respect, and power. I feel that these components are important because in a relationship there should be equal amounts of all three. From the answers I would then figure out how each answer affects the length of the relationship. For example, if one of the partners from the traditional dating group and one of the partners from the online group both had an affair then I would see if the traditional dating group or the online dating group couple lasted longer.

In conclusion, if you compare the length of online couple relationships to traditional couple relationships, then traditional relationships will last longer because they create stronger relationships.