About 10 percent of Boston University students are on Datemyschool.com, a dating site aimed at college students, company officials said.
Gunita Singh, the marketing ambassador for Datemyschool.com at BU, said the dating site has created a presence on campus.
“Things are just a lot more fast-paced these days, and the relationships we form and maintain are often secondary,” Singh, a College of General Studies sophomore, said. “While technology is definitely a contributor to that, one can argue that the secondary relationships are the only relationships we’re going to have with things like Facebook, Twitter.”
BU falls behind other universities where students use Datemyschool. Thirty percent of students at Columbia University go on the site, as do 25 percent at New York University, she said.
College of Arts and Sciences freshman Christina Clay said her friends signed her up for an online dating website as a joke.
“It’s more of a joke than using it to actually get a date,” Clay said. “If people use [the sites] to actually find dates, then that’s good, but I don’t think that the interest is too high.”
Singh said, however, online dating isn’t always a joke.
“While I feel college is definitely the platform off of which you can form solid, perhaps lifelong relationships, it is also very difficult to form those close-knit relationships that you often hear about that our parents had back in their day,” Singh said.
However, Clay said dating websites form an insincere connection, much like social media websites do.
“It’s all dehumanized,” Clay said. “With busier and busier schedules, I could see people using it more than actual interaction, which I don’t think is a good thing.”
Datemyschool.com only allows students with a college ID to join, and since users can limit who sees their profiles, students can remain anonymous, Singh said.
“A lot of kids who are pre-med or in the School of Management or the School of Law, understandably, they’re very concerned with their appearance and what they’re affiliated with,” she said.
CAS senior Nelson Hernandez said the website might be better than a general dating website, as it is more targeted at a specific audience.
“It might be a little bit safer than regular dating sites because . . . only college students can use them or there is less fear that you might get kidnapped or something,” he said.
A CAS sophomore who wished to remain anonymous said she chose to use the college dating website because she felt safer using it and wanted to find potential dates who are educated.
“I had trouble meeting people in the real world, so I kind of felt like online might be easier,” she said. “So I encourage people who feel like they are in my same situation [to use it].”
The student said these sites were good for people who are shy or have trouble forming relationships at a big school such as BU.
However, SMG sophomore Jose Lopez said dating websites for college students are unnecessary because they interact with each other frequently.
“I think that there is a point where it is necessary when you’re busy all the time that you’re working,” Lopez said. “It’s for a more grown up perspective.”
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