Monday, March 7, 2011

Practicum Post # 3-Kristin


So I am presenting tomorrow 3/8 (yes, it's mardi gras) with Jamie about internet users. I will be talking about JDate.com and how it is not only a dating website, but also can be used as a social network. This project has been really interesting for me and I learn new things everyday when I check out the website and try to find patterns and make meaning of what goes on in the JDate community! JDate's target user is Jewish singles over the age of 18; however, the website is not solely restricted to Jewish individuals. At the beginning of my research I thought that I would have to pay when I signed up to be a member on the site, but I didn't. It wasn't until a little digging and a few secret messages that I learned I couldn't communicate with other users on the site because the site wanted me to pay a monthly fee. If it wasn't so expensive I would have payed the fee for a month to fully explore the website. Some questions I had at the beginning of my research are: Am I being ethical joining a Jewish dating website when I am not Jewish and not looking for a relationship? and Is it ethical to use a different location in my profile?. I was relieved to find out how socially involved with other members you could be on the site if you paid a monthly fee. I also noticed that I can't be much of a participator because I am not paying monthly, so that makes me more of an observer. I am bummed I cannot participate in the chat rooms and blogs; I think those would be really interesting.

I will tell you more tomorrow during my presentation, but here is my question for you to think about:

How do you feel about people who are not Jewish who become members on JDate?

How do you think other minority groups or races feel about the Jewish Community having a specific dating site?

2 comments:

  1. Hey Kristin, sorry I missed your presentation in class yesterday .... it seems like it was really interesting. It would have been interesting to see what everyone had to say in response to your question about how people who are not Jewish feel about JDate. I think the fact that there is such a site such as JDate, geared towards a specific group of people is interesting. If you were jewish, I think it would be a great resource to go online if you were looking to date. Therefore, I think, due to its name, most people would believe that all users on JDate, were in fact Jewish.

    I also think there are many specialty dating sites geared toward specific groups of people. For instance, I know there are a couple sites for christians looking to meet other christians, and there is also a site called blacksingles.com. I believe the purpose of these sites is to make finding a specific type of person to date easier. I imagine that when users go to these types of sites, they already have an image of the type of person they would like to meet. Therefore, if people are using that site and are not Jewish or christian or black, they may be defeating the purpose of the site.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think that the whole idea of JDate is super interesting. I actually have some friends from home that are on it. I don't know how I feel about it being so exclusive, though. I know that some cultures are super traditional and want to keep their religion alive by marrying those of the same religion. It almost feels like they are closing themselves off, though. Someone Jewish could very well meet the love of their life that is not Jewish, but I guess people that join the site are not interested in people not of their religion. As someone who isn't super religious and doesn't really care about the religion/race/ethnicity of my significant other, I kind of take offense to the website only because I am dating a Jewish person. I guess, though, that for people who religion is very important to this site is a great idea. It allows people to join a community with other people that they have something in common with. While I wish that other people could get a chance to use the site, I do know that it wouldn't be JDate and the reason for the website would be obsolete if it wasn't restricted to Jewish singles.

    ReplyDelete