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Comment by Overtonwindow | Hacker News Reader

Online dating drastically simplifies the idea and practice of courtship. It then overly exaggerates the dating pool, and allows people to superficially skip through everyone that doesn't overwhelmingly appeal to them. As such, two people never really get to know each other, and discover if they are compatible. It has been said elsewhere, and would appreciate the source, that 20 years ago, the majority of people who are married would have never even dated had online dating been around at the time.

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However, divorce rates have dropped in recent years and are lower than 20 years ago: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/jan/28/divorce...

Could it be that by being more picky, we give ourselves a better chance of staying together?

EDIT: I found a more recent one with a relative rate vs. marriages: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12011714/Divorce-rate...

It may be that, as the article suggests, the decrease in % divorce rates has dropped partly due to the increase in social acceptability of cohabitation, allowing couples to try it out before getting married.

Nevertheless, taking simply divorce rates into account, the situation has improved from 20 years ago.

> However, divorce rates have dropped in recent years and are lower than 20 years ago

So have marriage rates - perhaps those who DO get married these days, really mean it.

It could be that, but it could also be because we're marrying so much less [1] which changes the landscape (who marries for what reasons). I'd say that 1000 marriages 20 years ago aren't all that comparable to a 1000 marriages now.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/feb/11/marriag... I know the article is a bit old, the trend is still visible though.

I'd argue the same that marriages rates are down, I'd like to see some stats on it. The prospect of marriage has no benefits when you look at it unemotionally. You get marginal tax benefits when you are married but these are completely offset when the cost of divorce is considered. Its quite a risky proposition for a young successful entrepreneur, escpecially the Californian alimony laws.

In Australia, if you're married as an international student, you can bring your spouse, and he or she doesn't have to study and have the right to work full time. That makes it much more easier for both of them financially, individually to make a foothold in the country. It's one part time income and one full time income to support two people and one degree as opposed to, if they were by themselves, one part time income to support themselves studying a full time degree.

Then later as they achieve temporary and then permanent residency the marriage can be used to apply for visa for the spouse.

I have met a few international student couples who marry at 20 or 21, and one of them drops out, for this advantage.

And since they're living pay check to pay check anyway, it's not risky for either of them.

Divorce rates among couples that cohabit ate are actually not much different than among those that don't once controlled for age. My current interpretation is that those that marry older tend to divorce at lower rates, but that's just anecdotal until I look for a study that examined that variable.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/divorce-cohabitation-stud_n_4...

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