A study at Univertity State Michigan examined this ongoing and mysterious phenomenon called internet dating. Unfortunately, it costs $51 to read that article. Fortunately, The Washington Post did the heavy lifting. They said the study found online dating produces fewer marriages than when people met on the street, in a bar, etc.
However, since the title of the article is, “Is Online Better Than Offline for Meeting Partners? Depends: Are You Looking to Marry or to Date?” we can assume it’s still a viable way to meet people to date or for more casual relationships.
WaPo goes on to quote someone from Match.com about those fascinating personality quizzes that we love to take, to fill out our profile.
“Everyone knows that all personality profiling is ********,” a former Match executive told him. “As a marketing hook, it works great.”
That’s disappointing. How can someone fall in love with us without knowing all the little details that make us interesting?
A writer at the Huffington Post gives 5 unusual tips (her description) (link is external)for online dating. Three of them are worth doing.
How to have more fun cyberdating
1. Pay the entire bill. It’s way sexier than splitting it. And she says, let the man pay, or be prepared to pay the whole thing yourself.
2. If you talk about yourself too much, either from social anxiety or narcissism, bring some questions along to ask the other person. On one first date with someone I met in real life, there were some silences in the car. My date thanked me for not constantly talking.
3. If you try to be yourself most fully, you’re more likely to be rejected.
The last one is silly. I would reframe that: the sooner you find out he’s very different from you, you can walk away and get closer to the yes man.
My last cartoon was about narcissism. You know it when you see it.