Den virtuella dejtingvärlden : En studie om användandet av nätdejtingsajter

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study has been to investigate the virtual world that people are part of on online dating sites. To do this we have investigated two different research questions, which are the following: What functions do the online dating sites provide? Why and how are the online dating sites being used by their members? In order to gather information about these matters, we have used a qualitative method consisting of participating observation, scrutinizing and single person interviews. Our results indicate that people have different goals with their usage of online dating sites; some are looking for love, a long-term relationship while others are looking for sexual contact. There are many different online dating sites to choose from depending on the users’ objective. The online dating sites we have observed offer similar functions. To find someone of interest most of our interviewees use the search function. The way of initializing contact when finding someone of interest varies between our interviewees, but most of them send flirts and mails. Online dating offers a possible alternative for people to find a potential partner.