Friday, April 24, 2009

Yes, I tried internet dating.

Scariest, most depressing thing I've ever done.

I realize internet dating has worked for many people. I don't think the idea is bad in principle. But my experience sucked.

I live in a large city where there is a sizable Mormon population. I didn't think I was asking too much to request someone who lived within 100 miles of me and was under the age of, oh let's be really generous, 40.

I did the usual—posted a little about my interests, my goals, my educational and career background. I expressed a desire to meet someone at a similar place in life.

Let me tell you what I did not know. There is a large number of single mo-men:

-who are OVER FIFTY and think it's acceptable to “wink” at and message girls in their 20s.

-who cannot go 3 words without making a spelling or grammar mistake.

-who do not live in the United States, barely speak English, and think they might meet a nice American mo-girl. (aka GREEN CARD!!)

-who are 30 or older, have not gone to college, work minimum wage jobs, and think they might like to pursue a relationship with a girl who lives on the other side of the country.

-who think it's permissible to unload all their relationship baggage in a first message to a girl.

-who have CHILDREN as old as the girl they're trying to pursue.

Oh, and I'm just getting started.

As soon as my month was up, I ran far, far away from that site.

4 comments:

Angela said...

Amen. Sure, it works for some people, but it is SO not for me. Who do these guys think they are? Oh and there are the ones that aren't even ACTIVE. I haven't been waiting this long to settle on something less than a temple marriage. It seems like for some guys it's another resource for them to be a predator on women. Women that they think are pushovers or naive simply because they're mo. Please. We aren't your common little Molly-Mos these days.
People continually ask me if I've tried the internet thing. And I went through that phase in my 20's and had a similar experience to what you've outlined here. And when Elder Oaks gave the talk about dating vs hanging out, he mentions that we shouldn't need to use internet dating sites. So that was my easy out. Everybody shuts up once I state that an apostle has said that. Ha. Awesome.

Anonymous said...

i went on a NON-LDS site. did not mention my religion. wanted to get back in the swing of dating - but not go all out for committment. there was only person i got more than 3 steps down the path with. turns out this person is in my ward. was god trying to tell me to only date mormons?? nah. i think he was telling me to get off the internet dating site!!

alex dumas said...

Haven't you heard the argument that there are more dating sites to try? Believe me, they're all the same.

Anonymous said...

I tried LDS Planet for a while. It became more depressing that it was worth when there were 32 "views" of my profile and 0 "flirts", "winks" or messages. Maybe it was because I have kids. Oh, well.