They may not be entirely over a bad breakup that they just had in real life.
Hence, they turn to the online dating site for some companionship but they are only looking for a friendship.
In other words, they aren’t emotionally available due to the fact that they are still getting over this bad breakup.
They may still even love their ex and are hopeful that somehow the relationship will return.
However, in the interim, they are distraught and emotionally damaged.
They turn to looking for a friendship on online dating sites because they just want to feel like they are still desirable.
They want their self-esteem to get a boost.
Getting attention from people on an online dating site can really help to make people feel like they aren’t invisible.
This is one of the most common reasons why you may come across people looking for a friendship on online dating sites.
Also, people in these situations need a distraction.
In other words, they may be literally thinking about the breakup all day long to the point where they feel like they can’t really get anything else done or they just feel so overwhelmed.
When these people start looking for a friendship on online dating sites, they are often looking for a distraction from it all.
Looking for a friendship on an online dating site gives them new people that they can talk to online that can help to kill the time and take the person’s mind away from the breakup.
Also, other people who look for a friendship on online dating sites may not necessarily be doing it because they just went through a bad breakup and are either looking for attention or a distraction, they may just want to start with getting to know someone as a friend first.
These people have more of a slower and surer approach to dating.
They believe that it is better to get to know someone first as a friend before entertaining the idea of dating that person.
This may be how this person has always approached dating even in the real world.
They may have only dated people in the real world who they initially got to know as a friend beforehand.
Hence, going about dating in this way is what makes them comfortable and they use the same approach on the online dating site because it is what they know.
They may have the objective to ultimately meet someone to date but they don’t want to feel rushed into it.
Hence, these are the people who will take their time first by looking for a friendship on the online dating site before they allow anything romantic to possibly happen in the future.
Other people who go looking for friendship on online dating sites may just really be lonely.
They may actually not have any friends in the real world and are hoping that they can find some on the online dating sites.
Perhaps they have tried making friends on social media sites but had no luck.
So they turn to the online dating sites.
These are the people who may have very little experience with romantic relationships or may have never been in one before.
They may be open to it but their primary motivation is to make friends.