Misadventures in Atlanta Blog is on the Move!
Attention Readers! We have moved! The Misadventures in Atlanta Blog can be found here. The new technology will improve our blog and commenting experience. Update your bookmarks and RSS feeds!
AJC.com > Living > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 17
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
It’s all in the presentation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When I first started this blog, I signed up for a lot of online dating sites. I wanted to make sure I was going on as many dates as possible so I had a lot of things to write about, and I felt like that was a great way to broaden my pool. I had some good dates — mostly, some not so great ones, but I learned a lot from all of them.
Lately, though, I haven’t had much interest in dating online. I keep getting these emails that are like “you have 127 new messages waiting for you!” and I just sort of sigh and move on. Part of it is that the novelty has worn off, but I think there’s more to it.
One of the things that’s most important to me is honesty in relationships. And I don’t like going on dating sites when I feel uncomfortable or unhappy about something in my personal life, because I feel like I’m representing myself unfairly — part of being on these dating sites is selling yourself as positively as possible, and if you are worried about your body or your emotions or your stress level, it can be tough. This winter and spring, I’ve been sick a lot (having my tonsils out on Friday), which has affected me both emotionally and physically, and it doesn’t make me feel like “selling myself” on a web site. I feel like if I meet a guy in person, at least he has a better idea what he’s getting when he asks me out!
My friend Veronica recently signed up for a dating site for the first time, and she has stressed about “looking hot” in her picture. The best thing I can tell her is to put up a nice picture where she looks like herself!
I think about a date that I went on, one of my first online dating experiences, where the guy looked NOTHING like the photo he had posted. I felt so tricked by that! And I would never want someone to feel deceived because I didn’t have the same personality or look exactly the same as the way I had implied online.
Have you ever tried dating online? Did you like it? Or did you struggle with the idea of how to present and sell yourself?
Do you think honesty is a problem with online dating? Have you ever been “tricked” by it, the way I felt that I was?
Is it more important to feel confident about yourself with online dating, or meeting people in person?
Permalink | Comments (100) | Categories: Dating
