?[Married men using online dating services] is just a fact of life. Look at the divorce rate,? Clifford said. ?The fact that a significant number of married individuals are using online dating services gives more credence to the sustainability of the market... From a social perspective, this has some disadvantages, and from a business perspective it has advantages.?
Besides, Yahoo?s Mitnik says, not all those married people hanging out at online personals sites are looking for a fling. Many have far more wholesome motives.
?There?s huge entertainment value in searching through online personals,? she said. ?We try to get them to work for us, too. So for example, we made it easy to e-mail (personal) ads to friends. These people are married matchmakers. .. And we pick up a fair number of subscriptions from that.?
ra·tion·al·ize Pronunciation Key (rsh-n-lz)
v. ra·tion·al·ized, ra·tion·al·iz·ing, ra·tion·al·iz·es
v. tr.
1. To make rational.
2. To interpret from a rational standpoint.
3. To devise self-satisfying but incorrect reasons for (one's behavior): ?Many shoppers still rationalize luxury purchases as investments? (Janice Castro).
4. Mathematics. To remove radicals, such as from a denominator, without changing the value of (an expression) or roots of (an equation).
5. Chiefly British. To bring modern, efficient methods to (an industry, for example).
v. intr.
1. To think in a rational or rationalistic way.
2. To devise self-satisfying but incorrect reasons for one's behavior.