Online dating.
It’s a phrase that usually elicits mixed responses. If you happen to tell folks that you’re “doing the online dating thing,” you’re lucky if you get the “Oh, my friend So-and-so met her husband online! They’re so happy together!” response (at which you smile and let out the breath you didn’t know you were been holding).
But sometimes, the response you get is just silence… and a look of pity. You know the look–the sad eyes that seem to say “Oh, you poor thing, you must have hit rock bottom!” and that flat-lipped smile usually reserved for sickly, stray dogs? Yeah, that look. Which is usually followed by “Have you tried doing such-and-such?” or “I know a couple of single guys.” It’s at that point that you feel like the cartoon character with the storm cloud above your head, praying that lightning will strike you dead.
So, yeah, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m going to try that online dating thing.
Eventually.
And by “eventually” I mean that I’m currently reading a book about online dating. For all you book nerds out there, it’s called Fine, I’ll Go Online: The Hollywood Publicist’s Guide to Successful Internet Dating by Leslie Oren. And yes, Leslie Oren is a real publicist–meaning that she is an expert in making people look good.
And that is just her task in the book–she claims to be able to use her publicist skills to help her readers create a profile that shows them in the best light so they’ll attract the right partners. So far, nothing she’s said has been super enlightening… but I’m only on the fourth chapter.
I did, however, heed some of her advice and tried to scope out some of the major dating sites: Yahoo! Personals, Match.com, eHarmony, and PlentyOfFish.
Match.com and eHarmony wouldn’t let me in. You’re required to create a profile before they let you look. Which, I believe, is not a good marketing strategy, although it is a good way to protect their members’ privacy.
Yahoo! Personals was actually rather depressing. Now, granted, I only looked through about 30 profiles… but not one of them piqued my interest. I then checked out PlentyOfFish.com, which had better results. There was actually one guy that really interested me… until I read that he prefers skinny/thin girls…. which kicks me out of his dating pool.
Has anyone out there had any luck with online dating? Anything like those cheesy success stories you see on the commercials? Or is the online dating pool just as dirty as the regular dating pool?
And P.S… Why do men seem to refuse to smile in their profile pictures? Don’t they realize that they look like serial killers when they don’t smile?
