Does Online Dating Really Lead to Better Marriages?

We’ve all heard horror stories about Internet dates—they usually involve someone lying about their age or height, being a bad tipper, or ditching the evening entirely.

So it may surprise you to learn that couples that met online reported slightly happier marriages than those who met offline, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In a survey of around 19,000 participants, researchers found that 6.7% marriages that started offline ended in separation or divorce. Meanwhile, only 5.9% of marriages that began through dating sites ended in separation or divorce.

It may seem like a small difference, but it’s just the beginning of tracking long-term effects of the Internet on our personal lives. Because online dating is still so new to our cultural framework, we’re only just starting to measure the impact it will have on marriage and, perhaps, divorce. The country’s current divorce rate is an estimated 44%, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). This latest study raises questions about the new ways we decide on partners and how it may affect our compatibility in the long term.

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