The National Marriage Project’s Ten Things about Marriage Young Adults should know says that an introduction by family or acquaintances made up sixty percent of the marriages in their 2004 sample. I suspect the data might be dated – an eHarmony staff [on quora] points to a report they commissioned from Harris Interactive that claims that for 2008-09, 14% of marriages came from connections initiated online.
It does seem to me that having a two pronged approach – being open to introductions from friends and acquaintances, and getting online – should improve a bloke’s chances of meeting The One (if she actually exists, that is). As a result, I have bitten the bullet and signed up for an account at eHarmony, complete with a six month subscription. Given the audacious claims made in the various ads, the scientific lean of the matching system and frankly, the paucity of options, going down this route seemed a no-brainer to me.
There are positives – the chance to ask myself questions that drill to the depths of who I am, and also re-jigging my list for the One. So here’s to first tentative steps into uncharted territory.