The first principle is that people react to things based on the meanings they have for them. To begin to determine what people have for online dating, it would be helpful to look at the type of sites they search for, join, and essentially advertise on. Someone who frequents a site like "match.com" likely has very different meanings and intentions regarding online dating than someone on a site like "Ashley Madison" where the goal is simply to have an affair. In Blumer's second stage, where people derive meaning from their social interactions, sociologists could examine the type of social interactions between peers, both online and offline. They might engage in this activity because they know other people who have succeeded, or perhaps they have simply failed through conventional channels. Maybe they feel the need to find someone because their friends are in relationships and they want to fit in using any means necessary. The third stage is a process of interpretation; that is, the person takes everything they have learned about the meanings related to online dating and adds their own interpretation. Maybe someone is interpreting online dating as simply the only way to get a date now, or maybe their interpretation is that it's one of many methods used to try to meet.