Disintermediating your friends: How online dating in the United States displaces other ways of meeting
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Level 4 by design analogy (cross-sectional survey data).
OpenAlex W2969738163 · doi:10.1073/pnas.1908630116
What was done
Data from a 2017 nationally representative survey of American adults were analyzed to determine how heterosexual couples in the United States meet and how these patterns have changed over time, specifically evaluating the role of online meeting versus traditional third-party mediation.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical figures or percentages. It states that meeting online became the primary way heterosexual couples meet in the United States, surpassing introductions through friends around 2013. Among couples meeting online, the proportion who met through third-party mediation has declined over time, displacing the historical role of family and friends.
Why it matters
This study documents a fundamental shift in partner selection in the United States, showing that digital platforms have largely displaced traditional kinship and friendship networks as relationship intermediaries.
Limits
The abstract does not report the sample size, response rate, or specific quantitative metrics. The findings are restricted to heterosexual couples in the United States, limiting generalizability to other relationship types or international contexts. The analysis relies on retrospective self-reported survey data, which is vulnerable to recall bias.
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