Pitfalls Of Online Dating

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Lets admit it we are on fast track, everything we want has to be fast - so dating is no exception. Every now and then we come across something related to speed dating, gone are the days when we took time in the pleasure of approaching someone, introducing ourselves and asking them out for a date. Forget about the human touch, we are loosing our language - does this look familiar

Hi m Joe 32m frm US.. whats ur a/s/l?

If you would have shown this line to someone 10 years back - they would have asked, is it Morse's Code? Today a typical chat transcript looks like this. Eight years back when I came to US I realized the power of online chats - my work comprised of one window (work related) and 10 windows (chat related)... its amazing how I multi-tasked in those days, today I could hardly understand what my wife is saying while I am working.

Just when I was thinking I opened a Pandora's box of online dating I had my first encounter with the "cons of online dating". 24 female, hazel eyes, some extra baggage (she meant by weight) - wrote the profile. When I met her the first thought that came to my mind was, which word in English did I missed, for me 'extra' means 5 pounds, well for some it might be 150 pounds. Then I met this girl, beautiful, petite - just as she wrote in her profile. Then at the dinner table she went on a drinking binge that rose my tab to $160.00. Well not her fault, her profile wrote - Smoking & Drinking - Moderate.

It is found that 97.5 percent of the online daters were dishonest about at least one aspect of their profile, with women most likely to fib about age and weight while men often fudged their age and marital status. 60 percent of the men who stated they were single, separated or divorced still were married. This guy showed up to a date with a bandage wrapped around his ring finger. It turned out he was not hurt, he was married.

The next time you read a profile - 5 feet 8, blue eyes, slightly overweight, occasional smoker - remember, the meaning of the words 'slight' and 'occasional' might be slightly different than what you think.