I do everything online -- but not date
I run a lot of my life online. I pay bills, correspond with friends, shop and get a ton of information for my job on the Internet.
But I still judge my friends who claim to have made friends or met potential dates online. There's just something icky to me about thinking you have a personal connection with someone who you have never met, well, in person. And maybe I'm hypocritical, but I think there's a huge, wide chasm of difference between meeting a stranger online and using the Internet to keep in touch with friends you already have.
But an article in Wired this month says meeting online is kind of like meeting in church -- another place I am never looking for a hook-up, by the way.
I'm long over worrying about giving companies my credit card number over the Internet. Does my attitude about finding love online mean I belong on an ice floe somewhere?
Comments (6)
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I found some success at online dating sites that caters to specific interests and even managed to make a few friends from those places. It's easier to break the ice, relax and get to know someone when you start out with a common interest.
General online dating sites are a different story. Seems like everyone fudges the truth (height, weight, looks, expectations, etc.) at those places. I would choose being single rather than look for a relationship on those sites.
Posted on April 23, 2008 12:11 PM
Well folks, for these comments, it depends on your age, your looks, your ethnicity, a number of factors, how successful you are.
I've been in the area almost 3 years, am African American (don't let that stop me), 43 years old and have managed to meet on line, three gray haired White guys over 45 (one who unfortunately was stuck in the dating loop and has been here for 25 years and still had only 3 friends) one over 65 African American man.
Everyone my age says that they leave town to meet folks for Greensboro is not a "hot" town for dating... unless you are under 30.
Online is only as good as the folks in the area where youlive.
Posted on April 23, 2008 2:26 PM
since the golden days of AOL, i've talked to people online and ended up dating a few. I don't see a point in it now. I think the novelty wore off, for me, wore back in 2001. The last nail in the coffin was getting a text message that said "Yo mom has a profile on Black Planet."
Posted on April 23, 2008 4:03 PM
I tried the online dating thing and quite frankly did not like it. As a guy, I was getting correspondence from some seriously strange women. I cannot imagine how many strange men the average woman would attract.
I know some people have used it to varying success, though, so it may be an acquired taste.
Posted on April 23, 2008 7:54 PM
I don't know what this says about me, but if I did somehow meet a guy online and it turned into something serious, I'd probably make up a different "how we met" story to tell my friends.
That tells me I'm nowhere near ready to start dating online.
Posted on April 24, 2008 11:16 AM
This might be a contradiction - but I don't see anything "wrong" with online dating. However; that said, I do think twice about relationships that have been forged via the internet. Thankfully I've never had to take that venture in my romantic life, but have had a few friends that gave it a try.
Of those, they have all (initially, at least) not admitted to meeting the other online, just as Betty wrote above. While it is becoming more and more "acceptable" as time progresses, those who I've known to be online daters seem to think it's a scarlet letter of sorts. Maybe because of people like me who still eye such relationships with a crooked glance.
However, I think that arena has growth written all over it, but I am still glad that I never had to ultimately relegate myself to online dating.
Posted on May 1, 2008 1:42 PM