Online singletons use social networks to find love By David Crookes Tuesday, 11 April 2012 1 Social media has changed the way people communicate and now it seems it is also the preferred way for people to find love. 2 Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites are used by 59 per cent of online daters in a trend called network dating, according to a survey. 3 And it appears people are finding more and more interesting ways to meet a potential partner. They are using every online opportunity to find romance. 4 MySpace popularized network dating, and the number of single people on Facebook has helped it to grow. 5 This has led to social media based services such as Fancy My Friend in Australia and Zoos in which people help their friends get together. 6 The poll of 1, 899 people found that 72 per cent of respondents used both online dating sites and social media platforms while 19 per cent used social media sites alone. Just nine percent said they only used dating sites. 7 Of those, 59 per cent said they preferred to look for romance on social media platforms. 51 per cent believed that it was safer and a third said it allowed them to meet people through mutual friends. One of the reasons for avoiding dating websites is stigma -- 27 per cent of people did not want to admit meeting there 5. Answer the questions below: 1. What is the difference between social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and services such as Fancy My Friend and Zoosk? 2. Why do people p refer to find partners on social media sites? 3. Why do many people avoid dating sites? 4. Why might social media sites not be ideal for online dating?