I half-jokingly say that what motivates many couples to stay committed in a time of hardship is the idea of the possibility of "fate." Anecdotally, just within

I half-jokingly say that what motivates many couples to stay committed in a time of hardship is the idea of the possibility of "fate." Anecdotally, just within my social group, I've seen a trend of people deciding to avoid online dating and preferring to meet others in-person. There may be a tendency for people to break up more easily after meeting online and commit less to the relationship in tough times, in contrast to people they've met in-person—perhaps in part due to the idea that fate led them to meet each other. I also know of a few couples who met online and have made it work. For one couple, they happened to meet by coincidence a couple times due to already having mutual friends, who have had a great relationship that continues to be strong. I have an intuition that these circumstances gave the relationship a sense of being special and difficult to replace (in addition to their personalities being a great fit), strengthening their commitment to each other. The process of online dating can also be exhausting, from the accounts of a few people I've known who tried it for a while. Dating apps are often designed to be addictive to encourage you to check often: even then, the number of rejections or failed dates can also wear you down. In these ways, online dating for many users can be high-effort and draining.