Are you alone? Are you tired of the club scene? Are you sick of going to the bars in hopes of finding Mr. or Mrs. Right? Do you like your friends but don't like the people they set you up with? Maybe you should join the millions of other people and try internet dating. It's not for everyone, but maybe you'll luck out... you just need to be aware of a few 'issues' that may pop up in your venture.

 

 

First, realize that there are literally thousands of different websites, and a good portion of them will be geared towards a particular niche. If you have a particular 'type' of partner in mind, chances are you'll find a specialized dating website... I've seen everything from a plain dating site where any type of person can join to sites that are exclusively for rich men that want to only date beautiful women (with men having to verify their finances and women having to be judged as to whether they are considered beautiful or just nice looking). I have noticed, however, that just like at any social venue, internet dating also has people that don't have your best interests at heart. I've responded to several ads only to get spam emails asking me to join other websites. I've corresponded with some 'women' that, only after the possibility comes up to meet in real life, that they lied about where they lived (oh, so you apparently thought by this time you would be living in this state... I see! D'oh!) I've also met in real life after several weeks of online correspondence women that were older than they stated, younger than they stated, and in a couple cases (forgive me for saying this), women that were not in the least bit attractive to me physically. I've met a couple women that didn't even use their own picture (or an extremely outdated one) on their profiles, and when I told them I wasn't interested in dating them, I was told what a superficial and shallow person I was. Apparently it never occurred to them that I wasn't interested in dating someone that had not been honest with me since the beginning (and suffice to say, not physically attractive to me as well).

 

 

Look, I understand there are a lot of creeps, perverts, freaks, weirdos, and whatever else you want to call them. I can understand you trying to be cautious about giving away too much information lest you get stalked or raped. What I can't understand is the need to be deceitful... do you honestly think I'd be attracted to you by your personality and would overlook your physical unattractiveness? If you want me, I'll be hanging out at the bar... at least then I know what I'm getting myself into. Internet dating? You won't ever find me on there ever again... I'll take real world contact over virtual reality and mind games any day!

 

This rant written by Joe Rosendorf Jr.  This is merely an opinion based on personal experiences, and is intended to inform based on those experiences.