The Internet: Making Love Happen Since, Like, at Least the Late ’90s

For real, we’re not even kidding: According to groundbreaking new research from Stanford and City University, adults who have Internet access are “much more likely to be in romantic relationships” than adults without Internet access. Good to know. Also, good for Craiglisting your Missed Connections, which is really the first step to any successful relationship. Right? (Let’s make this happen!)

The researchers found that 82.2 percent of participants who had Internet access at home also had a spouse or romantic partner, compared to a 62.8-percent coupled rate for adults without the Internets. Who are these people without Internet access? The study did not say, but we imagine they live in caves somewhere eking out solitary, mole-like existences because, really, how can you not have Internet? And if you don’t have Internet, do you really expect anyone to date you?

Also! The Internet is where people meet, studies conclude. The Internet might even be more important than your actual, physical friends in terms of introducing you to your next relationship!

“It is possible that in the next several years the Internet could eclipse friends as the most influential way Americans meet their romantic partners, displacing friends out of the top position for the first time since the early 1940s,” said Michael J. Rosenfeld, the study’s lead author.

In fact,

“The Internet is not simply a new and more efficient way to keep in touch with our existing networks,” said Rosenfeld, “rather the Internet is a new kind of social intermediary that may reshape the kinds of partners and relationships we have.”

Wow! Thank you, Time Warner.