Online dating is for the cool kids – Guest Post
I’m not a loser. Just want to put it out there. I’m socially adept. I’m not awful to look at. I can carry on a semi-intelligent conversation. I’m not desperate. I can find a date. Get this. The gentlemen I meet through online dating, for the most part, are socially proficient, decently attractive, can carry on a conversation and all and all aren’t so bad. Here’s my point: online dating is no longer the last option at dating scraps for the socially-awkward, hopeless and lonely pariahs of the world. Newsflash! Not really. At least not for the people who are actually online dating. Online dating is for the career-minded, busy, new-to-the-area, family-oriented, second-chance-at-love, fabulous people of the world!
Whenever I mention online dating to some of my coupled friends I usually get: Oh yeah, online dating. Good for you! Yeah, that’s really common. Yeah. I don’t know, online dating? I don’t know if I’d do it. I mean, I don’t think it’s for me. Good for you! ….Aren’t there a lot of creeps?
The answer is Yes. Despite our friendly reputation, our country is in fact bursting with creeps and some of them might have a computer with internet access, what can you do? Seriously though, I know a ton of couples that met online. Ok maybe not a ton but enough. Some of them are happily married with two kids and others broke off the engagement after finding out their future spouse had a criminal record they forgot to mention on date three. Here’s the thing, this is true of couples I know who met in school or on the bus…I think it’s a crapshoot whether you meet online or in a coffee shop.
For this reason and on behalf of online daters everywhere, here are MY top 3 reasons why I online date:
1. Gal likes to have her options
There are plenty of single people. I don’t know why we live in such a ‘couple-friendly’ society because in reality, I think, there are a lot of us out there just doing our own thing and loving life. I’m a by-product (the tree-hugging teenager in me hates to admit it) of this capitalist, instant gratification, disposable culture and online dating fits the bill. I can serial-date, have fun, until I meet someone kind of cool who I want to invest my time and energy into. Sold!
You can avoid dating within your social circle through online dating.
2. Incest? No thank you.
You ever notice on television shows with all of these close knit groups that everyone seems to date each other at one point or another? Friends, 90210, How I Met your Mother *cough Robin cough cough*, the list goes on. Think about it for a second. Yup. I make a serious effort NOT to date within my social/professional circle. Why? It can sometimes make things awkward for yourself and for your friends if things don’t work out. I’ve had the odd slip-up, it happens, but my friends are my urban family. They’re my safe, healing, comforting bath after a haaaaaaaaard workout and I really don’t want to pee in my bathwater. I like baths.
3. Meet new and interesting people
I’m not a doctor. I don’t practice law. I’m not in the trades business. I don’t raise goats. Unless I’m planning to invite the sexy police officer out for a drink after he writes me a speeding-ticket, I really wouldn’t interact with these people inside a dating platform during my regular day-to-day life. Thanks to online dating a plethora of new and interesting people are introduced into my life. And variety, my friends, is the spice.
- Speedstripe
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Great article.
I totally agree with your reasons to use online dating. I wish we could all stop feeling like we need to make excuses about it. I think we should start a movement. Online dating is a tool to meet people, nothing more nothing less, you still need all the other skills, like maintaining a conversation, personal hygiene and tact just like in “real” dating. I’m loud and I’m proud and I date online!