Tuesday, April 22, 2008

"Online Dating - The Pros and the Cons"

Here's a quick exercise you can use if you're trying to figure out whether or not to get involved with online dating. Each of us has different ideas on what is important, but it sometimes helps to write things down on paper.


Pros:

  • If you're shy, online dating is a lot easier than walking up to a complete stranger.
  • The pool available online is pretty large. I'm able to chat with a lot of quality females from the privacy of my living room.
  • What a savings of time. I can talk with many different singles all at once, at a time that's convenient to me, whether it's early in the morning before work or late at night.
  • If using a paid service, you're confident that the other person communicating is single and is interested in finding another single. That's never the case in the real world.
  • The cost is relatively cheap. The monthly cost of an online membership is way cheaper than buying a woman a couple of drinks or taking a date out to a movie.
  • You actually know someone when you finally go out on a date in the real world. Getting to know them in the virtual world makes the first meeting a lot less stressful.
  • You get something accomplished each time you log on. You will have a couple of constructive discussions and a couple of leads for future sessions. Lord knows how many times I used to come home from a night out all depressed because I didn't meet anyone.
  • If you start talking to someone and it just isn't clicking, it's much easier to terminate the relationship than it is face to face.

Cons:

  • People are still somewhat embarrassed to tell friends and families they're using a dating service, let alone an online one.
  • People don't always tell the truth online, although I guess that applies to the real world as well.
  • I always feel like there are a lot more men than women on the site. I don't know if it's true or not, but that's the perception I get.
  • You get to know the personality of the person you're talking to but you don't get an idea if there's any physical chemistry between the two of you. There are a lot of people that I love talking to, but a big part of a relationship is the physical aspect.


Once you put it all down on paper, I'm sure that you'll notice the pluses far outnumber the minus. If you're on the fence about this decision, take the time to write down the pros and cons and I'm sure you'll come to a similar decision

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