Internet Access and Partnership Formation in the United States

Maria Sironi and Ridhi Kashyap
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Ridhi Kashyap: Department of Sociology and Nuffield College, University of Oxford

No 20-16, DoQSS Working Papers from Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London

Abstract: The Internet has fundamentally altered how we communicate, access information and who we can interact with. These features are all potentially salient for mate search – but the implications of Internet access for partnership formation are theoretically ambiguous. We examine the association between Internet access and heterosexual and homosexual partnership formation using nationally-representative data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and the Current Population Survey (CPS) from the US. Across both data sources, we find that the association between Internet access and partnership formation (in the NLSY) and partnership status (in the CPS) is age-dependent. While negative at younger ages, the association becomes positive as individuals grow older and reach their mid- to late-20s for both homosexual and heterosexual partnerships. We interpret these results to suggest that the Internet facilitates union formation when individuals approach the stage in their life course when they feel ready to commit to a long-term partnership.

Keywords: Internet Access; Technology; Union Formation; Life Course; NLSY97; CPS.JEL (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 O51 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-10-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ict and nep-pay
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Journal Article: Internet access and partnership formation in the United States (2022)
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