The face of the dating world is changing, with more Australians turning to dating apps and the internet to meet that special someone.

Since the launch of Match.com in 1995 online dating sites have been rapidly gaining popularity as more people begin to turn away from the traditional method of meeting in person.

Sites such as eHarmony and OkCupid encourage users to create profiles featuring their pictures and personality attributes before being made public for other users to see.

Apps like Tinder and Bumble simplify this process even further, with users posting pictures and a brief summary of themselves for other users to ‘swipe’ their interest in the user.

Tinder user Lucas Chambers says he began using the app as a joke, but found himself talking to people he matched with more than those he’d met in person.

“It actually did work. I managed to meet my current girlfriend on Tinder, and I’ve had smaller things in the past with people I’d met on the app in the last year,” Mr Chambers says.

Australians and online dating

A 2017 Relationships Australia Survey provided evidence that more people were turning to online dating to meet their partners.

The 600 person survey found 62 per cent of women and 57 per cent of men used dating sites or online apps to meet their current partners.

Many Australians are beginning to embrace the simplicity of online dating apps, with 12 per cent of Australian’s active on Tinder in December 2017.

Why is online dating getting more popular?

There are a range of answers to this question, but possibly the most relevant is simply the stigma of online dating no longer exists.

Social norms have shifted, and so too has the stigma that surrounds using the internet to meet your partner.

People no longer see online dating as weird with people asking why haven’t you tried online dating, rather than why have you.

It also allows people to put out a range of ‘feelers’, making dating much less daunting than having to meet and immediately engage with people in person.

What about the old-fashioned way?

As more and more Australian’s turn to online dating, it seems that few are turning to the old fashioned method of courtship – meeting in person.

As we become a society more obsessed with technology, it makes sense that we integrate it slowly into each part of our lives. We already turn to the internet for music, shopping, food and clothes, why not dating as well?

What about the future?

As we begin to utilise the internet for every facet of our lives, there are plenty of people on the forefront of pushing those boundaries further.

The latest revolutionary method comes from DNA Romance, a dating service that uses your DNA to match you with a partner.

Their theory is based on the fact that your body produces chemical signals based on your DNA, and a potential partner can detect these by……smelling them.

The site then matches you with everyone you have a 70 per cent or higher compatibility with, with some claiming to be a 100 per cent match.

Instead of meeting people in person, or even swiping right on a profile, would you be happy to leave it all to genetics?

Could this be the way forward for dating?