Students are highly inefficient at dating, one MSU professor says.
"The efficient thing to do would be to go up to (someone they are attracted to) and say, 'excuse me, I would like to meet you,'" psychology Professor Gary Stollak said. "I would assume zero percent of students, maybe some very bold people in bars, are doing that."
But technology is helping to add options for students to find a potential mate. Larger organizations such as match.com have been around for several years, usually charging patrons only when they request contact information.
But recently, several new online dating organizations have developed to specifically target college singles.
One relatively new organization is singlestudents.com, with 2,000 MSU students and almost 90 Michigan schools in its database. Allmsu.com also has online dating classifieds, with about 1,500 profiles listed as of Monday afternoon.
Physiology junior Melissa Buchholtz said she's never used a dating site, but her 28-year-old sister has.
"She's met a couple of duds, but she's also dated a couple continually," Buchholtz said. "She said, 'What's the difference between meeting a stranger at the bar and someone you meet online that you don't know?'"
Stollak said online dating is relatively harmless.
"There is no pregnancy or venereal disease when you date online," Stollak said.
Stollak said an online service might be a good meeting place, but participants need to meet as quickly as possible.
"Ultimately, they have to meet and slowly begin what we call the acquaintance process," he said.
But not all dating organizations are moving online. Michigan Christian Singles, a subchapter of the nationwide Christian Singles Info-exchange, still links couples through the U.S. mail. They haven't switched over in part because of worries about identity theft and other security issues.
Those issues are significant, mainly because there is no policing of Web sites, said Jim Mork, a detective formerly with the Michigan Attorney General's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
"There are laws that relate to it, but no federal agents who go out and research every dating service," Mork said.
To protect themselves, potential date-finders need to do background checks on the companies whose services they are using.
Dan Heschl, founder of singlestudents.com said his staff personally checks each classified.
"Every profile is manually reviewed, there are no chances of e-mail addresses being exposed," he said.
Ultimately, Mork's online advice followed general dating standards.
"Take it slow," he said. "Make sure you're not giving away too much information and have a set plan."
Staff writer Agnes Soriano contributed to this report.
