So here's what I find interesting about online dating. Say you are in a social setting. You see someone. They see you. There is spark, attraction, a lil' sumpin' sumpin'. Then you talk, find out a name, a little about who they are and what brought them there. And then, maybe, you get a number, you give one, you go out. Then you take the steps necessary to get to know each other. At least, that's what we hope for.
The online thing is different. You have a profile. You add visual appeal with digital photos. You write a little something about yourself, present the best possible you. There are lots of templates for you to note particulars about yourself, like whether or not you like kids, or sushi, or the latest Coen Brothers' film. You look at other profiles; you gather information. You make contact, you make small talk, you make a plan to meet. And then you go out.
You go out. You meet for the first time, the FIRST time, with a load of information that you would not have if you had met in, say, a bar, or church, or work, or whereever people meet in the non-virtual world. You have the information, but not truly, in my humble opinion, a sense of who the person is. It's like being on a second or third date and a minus-one date all at the same time.
I'm not judging the merits of this process. Just saying that it is very, very different than what most of us are used to, or had planned.
Thinking about this makes me want to eat a big stack of pancakes. I'm not entirely sure why.
-C.
10 years ago
