Internet Romances: The Frequency and Nature of Romantic On-Line Relationships

One thousand university students were e-mailed a survey about relationships they had established on the Internet. Of the 248 who returned the survey, 88 (36%) indicated they had formed a friendship with another individual in an on-line setting. Nineteen (22%) described it as a close romantic relationship. These respondents were e-mailed a second survey concerning various aspects of their romantic relationship. The frequency of romantic on-line relationships in the university population investigated was determined to be.0766, or 76 per 1,000 students. The 12 respondents who returned the second survey rated their on-line relationship as equal to or superior to those they had established off-line on measures of strength, satisfaction, and ease of communication. The findings were discussed in terms of those features of computer-mediated communication that can facilitate the development of close relationships, as well as their implications for contemporary theories of relationship formation.