Chinanews, Beijing, Dec. 27 – About 40% of college students admit they had cyberdating experiences and our report shows that online dating has become an increasingly popular form on campus, said Sun Caiping, associate professor at the School of Education Science of the Northeast Normal University, in an interview given to the China Youth Daily. Since the spring semester this year, Professor Sun has been conducting a research program on cyberdating among college students. The program is jointly funded by the Ministry of Education, which designates the program as one of the fifteen major research programs launched for the youth during the Eleventh Five-year Plan Period (2006-2010), the Jilin provincial government, which names it as a key research program launched by the province during this period, and Nanjing Normal University. The research team has investigated 4,811 students in ten colleges which are located in nine provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. 18.4% of the college students in the survey admit that they had one or more lovers online and 38% of them say they know their classmates dating through the Internet. Also, more than half of the students would try cyberdating if they feel depressed, disappointed or frustrated. About 87.8% of the college students say cyberdating will quench their thirst for emotional care. “Cyberdating is a virtual experience. It makes people feel relaxed and attach to it psychologically. If I meet someone whom I can get along with, I won't mind dating her online,” a student said frankly. In the survey, 74.4% of the students think it very important to know the general information about their friends before they can date them online. 23.5% of the students regard cyberdating as “absolutely virtual” and 38% of them say they might consider bringing such virtual love to the real world at appropriate times, Sun said. Girls and boys use different criteria in choosing their online lovers. Girl students attach more importance to their lovers’ talents, moral standings and their feelings towards their lovers. They prefer to chat with their friends online or, if they want, arrange a meeting or even marry their online lovers. On the other hand, boy students use only one criterion to select their online lovers – their appearance. They don’t care much about other things.
