Online Dating: Interaction Not Included!
I picked up a copy of the Time Out New York Offline Dating issue, naturally intrigued by the potential subject matter. I was quite happy to find a great piece written by Virginia Vitzthum titled "Dating Without a Net" that talks about some of the backlash that is newly spawned by the surge in online dating. Here are a couple of choice quotations from that article:
The majority of those interviewed have e-courted at some point, after tiring, perhaps, pretending they don't want a mate. They are typically disheartened by the gap between the written self and the corporeal self. Gavin, a 35-year-old freelance writer, is taking a break from Internet dating because he's tired of "falling into intense online relationships based on the e-facade that people -- myself as well -- put up for public consumption.
Time Out New York
Perhaps my favorite quote came from from a gentleman named Alexander:
"No matter how arranged or engineered the offline situation is -- bar, poetry reading, blind date, speed dating, Pilates class, etc. -- the relationship begins with that first visual, visceral impression that is more important than any amount of careful e-mail, wordplay, sexy phone talk or traded photos. Meeting someone face to face is just more intense and natural, like dogs in the park sniffing each other's asses.
Time Out New York
A couple of days ago, in "Faulting Fuzziness", I mentioned that one of the problems with the current crop of SNS systems was that they failed to account for the value and role and interaction in their systems. I think the sentiments expressed above affirm this. Truly the spark and chemistry that people feel is something that hard, if not impossible, to re-create and definitely not to be taken lightly.
In a related note, I wonder if we can expect many more commentaries of this kind now that people are starting to express their issues. I've found that often people will waiver on things but not take action one way or the other, however, once the public opinion changes in one way or the other people are likely to react.