Online dating stigma

"So where did you guys meet?" I asked my friend, who was dating a Scottish guy.

"We met through friends..." my friend said.

Yeah right, I thought, it was probably on a dating site.

Several months on, my friend confessed she had in fact met her boyfriend through OkCupid.

Online dating is still seen as a stigma. However, many of my friends swear by it. I have to admit, for me online dating is the best way to date. There are hundreds and thousands of people to date. You can even filter them according to your tastes - age, height, weight, interests, etc! You will never run out of a person to date.

The great thing is the guys you meet are not in your social circle, so you don’t really have to worry about “What will he think?” or “What if he says no?”

It’s way better than going to single’s events, where you end up wasting time talking to ugly guys, because they are easier to speak to, or speed dating events where you have to compete with all the other girls.

However, online dating also has its pitfalls. For one, you end up shopping. You reject Option A, thinking Option B will be better, then reject him thinking Option C is going to be better, only to realise, hey, Option A actually wasn’t so bad.

Two, photographs can be misleading. People always put their best photographs online, so never expect them to look as good as they look in a picture.

Three, sometimes a guy seems perfect on a profile and on the phone...Only to be totally different in real life!

Everyone has a different approach to dating online. Nevertheless, through experience I have some tips to share.

One, don’t spend too much time whatsapping each other before you actually date. I swear, the amount people whatsapp each other makes it seem that whatsapp compatibility is more important than sexual compatibility these days!

Though people may say it’s important to “get to know each other,” before actually meeting, what I’ve realised is through texting you can never tell how a person is going to be in real life. You may have this super-cool image of them, but when you actually meet them, you might not like their body language, or the way they talk, etc. And then you’ll regret you spent all that time texting them when you could’ve been doing other things.

Two, if you are interested in a guy, always let him pay. Guys value something more, when they’re paying. Of course, you’ll find cheap guys who always ask you out for coffee, or even worse, ones who’ll go Dutch. I would say those ones are usually not worth it. Guys should pay, as they don’t have to spend half an hour doing their hair, or buying expensive dresses or make-up.

Three, no one is perfect, so if you find you like someone, don’t reject them thinking you’ll get better. Chances are, you might not be able to go back to them, and may regret it later on.

So, why don’t you go online and share your own tips?