Meeting Online is Shifting Educational Inequalities in Union Formation

• In Event: 2264 - Internet and Society: Hate, Inequality, and the Digital Divide

Abstract

Digital technologies colonize a large part of our social lives, including the pursuit for a romantic partner. Despite recent inquiries into the consequences of meeting online, we still lack knowledge on whether and how the Internet becoming an increasingly prevalent partnership market modifies social class boundaries in union formation. More specifically, it is yet unknown which social group makes better use of the abundance of online opportunities for interaction to form committed long-term unions. To assess whether online tools for mate selection affect the partnering prospects of the lower versus higher educated, this study comprehensively focuses on two events: entry into a romantic partnership among singles seeking a partner online versus elsewhere; and entry into a more committed arrangement, particularly marriage, among partnered individuals that met their match online versus offline. A set of competing hypotheses is proposed building on theoretical arguments related to marriage markets and/ or partner preferences. Based on an up-to-date German longitudinal sample of young adults and a set of event history analyses, results reveal that lower educated, especially women, are less likely to find a partner when searching on the Internet, and less prone to transition into marriage if they started their partnership online. The second finding is partly explained when accounting for educational sorting, with unions between two lower educated partners displaying fewer transitions into marriage when having been initiated online than in physical meeting places. By aiming to identify some of the social costs of online mate selection, this study overall shows that, for young adults at the bottom of the educational distribution, the digital space imposes new barriers rather than enlarging opportunities for partnering.

Author

• Gina Potarca