Charlotte Willis
What would once have been an intimate handwritten letter between two people, at some point or another has evolved into the instantaneous email that we receive in our multiplicity of inboxes every day, often several times daily. The recent trend towards internet dating however, has taken on a whole new dimension. In an era where it is commonplace to own your own blog, facebook page, Ebay/Amazon/Coles shopping account, the online dating profile sits comfortably at home among a continually rising 69 per cent of Australian internet users . The shift towards online profiles, in particular internet dating, has risen from the hidden depths of cyberspace, once occupied by the desperados and the introverted, and has now become commonplace; a billion-dollar industry attracting thousands of members each day within Australia alone.
This article investigates the evolving world of internet dating and the capacity for each individual to exercise complete control over disclosure of the self within this now ubiquitous practice. Strategies of self-presentation among online dating participants, exploring how they control their online presentation of self in order to accomplish their ultimate goal of finding a partner will be explored. The article will examine the choices each individual makes when constructing (and reconstructing) their online persona, and the potential for creativity and selectiveness when managing an online profile, operating unashamedly under a notion of “possible selves” , whereby members ‘self consciously go through a process of careful creation and re-creation while engaging in the continuous, dynamic process of cognitive negotiation and re-negotiation’. How far will individuals go to manipulate their ‘real online selves’ in order to be more appealing for potential viewers? Furthermore, operating within such an aesthetically reliant culture, where extreme dependence and preoccupation is placed upon the visual image, just how easily are those who view another’s profile misled? With the ease of misinterpretation merely the click of an uploaded photo away, how effortless is it to recreate and over-edit the ‘online self’ for various viewers? Where do we, as a contemporary culture, draw the line between light tweaking and shameless deception within the consumption of internet dating?
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