Rosenfeld and Reuben Thomas, of the City University of New York, found the Internet is the one social arenathat is unambiguously gaining importance as a place where couples meet.
纽约城市大学的罗森菲尔德和鲁本 托马斯称，网络正日益成为寻找另一半的重要社交平台，这是确定无疑的。
"It is possible that in the next several years the Internet could eclipsefriends 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," Rosenfeld said in a statement.
罗森菲尔德在一项声明中说：“在未来几年中，网络可能会取代朋友介绍，成为美国人觅得另一半的最具影响力的方式，这将是自20世纪40年代初以来其首次取代朋友介绍成为第一大觅偶途径。”
The researchers said they found that the Internet was especially important for finding potential partners in groups where the supply is small or difficult to identify such as in the gay, lesbian, and middle-aged heterosexual communities.
研究人员称，网络对小众或觅偶较难的群体寻找伴侣尤其重要，例如同性恋人群和中年异性恋人群。
Rosenfeld said that among the couples who met within two years of the survey, 61 percent of same-sex couples and 21 percent of heterosexual couples met online.
罗森菲尔德说，在调查进行的两年间觅偶成功的人之中，有61%的同性伴侣和21%的异性伴侣是在网上认识的。
