Personalized Matchmaking V/s Online Matchmaking, What’s your take?
People who are older than millennials know something millennials and those younger then them may not know. They know what life was like before the Internet. To be more specific, they know that there was a time when every couple met in the real world, not online. In a bygone era, matchmaking happened exclusively through middle-aged and aged women and men who made it their business to find others, wives and husbands.
They were good at what they did because they kept their ears to the ground and knew the on goings of unmarried men and women. Using this knowledge they found people their soulmate or spouse. This was an unofficial but old profession.
Just because the Internet has permeated every aspect of life doesn’t mean traditional matchmakers have gone out of business.
Today, despite competition from online matchmakers, traditional matchmakers are thriving. To the majority of Indians, they remain the preferred way to find a suitable spouse. However, since online dating has become prevalent, it needs to be examined, which is better, online or traditional matchmaking? While one cannot definitively be proven to be better than the other because preferences wary, online matchmaking has some clear advantages.
Which is more authentic?
If there is one thing traditional matchmakers excel at it is knowing the good, bad and ugly about most people in their circle. They know who is having an affair with whom, which man has a drinking problem and difficulty holding a job and much more. People looking for love online don’t advertise such faults. Online profiles present the best aspect of a person while matchmakers know both the wholesome and the seedier side of unmarried men and women.
Yet this isn’t doesn’t mean that traditional matchmakers are better at helping people find love. When finding love through traditional matchmakers, potential grooms and brides learn about the quirks of possible matches, yet the information that reaches them is mostly distilled. Matchmakers have their agenda, and often it can center on ensuring a certain man or woman who is best suited for someone, gets married to another. Therefore a young woman with eyes set on a certain man may be kept away from him by a matchmaker.
The advantage of using an online service is it is more relevant for the person looking for love. Everyone knows that online profiles are somewhat embellished, but this can be advantageous. Profiles that seem grounded are likely to belong to more authentic people. Hence by initiating contact with such people, a man or woman has a better chance of finding true love.
Even more importantly, in an increasingly individualistic society, people must grow up and make their own decision. In such communities, people should have the maturity to decide who is right for them and not be told so by matchmakers. The person a man or woman marries must be right for them, and a middleman has no right to interfere in their decision. For this reason, young independent men and women do better by finding love online.
A larger pool exists online
A traditional matchmaker at most knows a few dozen eligible men and women. Hence the pool of potential suitors they grant access to is small. Online, the pool is vast, far more than is available with a dozen traditional matchmakers. Furthermore, online profiles give insights into the likes and dislikes of people. People looking for a partner have access to a potential life companion’s likes and dislikes and hence find it easier to be paired with a compatible person. The trained eye can spot online profiles that speak to them, making finding love online even easier than in the real world.
Fewer mistakes happen online
Finding love online has other advantages. For instance, when going through matchmakers, one may almost feel they are being coerced to marry someone. As mentioned before, matchmakers always have a hidden agenda. Finding love online is ideal for those who value their independence and are confident. They can make the first move and then decide whether they do or don’t want to take their online relationship offline.
By interacting online with many people, men and women have a vast pool to chose from and access to information to help them decide who is Mr or Mrs Right. The smartest and most independent know what it means when someone posts certain comments online. Such giveaways help them decide whether someone is as genuine as they project themselves to be. They help determine who is a suitable lover and partner and who isn’t. Furthermore, as more and more people spend as much time online as offline, finding love online is a better option.
What makes searching for love online best is that algorithms used by dating sites are far better at matching couples than even a truthful matchmaker—if indeed they exist—who have others’ best interest at heart. This fact makes finding love online win hand downs compared to traditional matchmakers. Though sometimes matchmakers get it wrong and match people that ultimately are not happy with each other and therefore they go on extramarital dating websites to find a better choice for themselves.