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If you’re
trying to find someone and haven’t had much luck in the physical world, then
you’d be surprised how effective internet dating can be. For me, it used to
carry a sour note in that it felt synonymous with the word “desperation”. So
about three weeks ago, I decided to give internet dating a go. I went to
Catholic match and made up an account and paid for a trial subscription. I
still don’t know if I want to re-subscribe. Once I started using it, I
realized, "this is tons of fun." You can message anything you want to anyone you want.
And you can see who looks at your profile and they can see if you looked at
theirs. It gives actual function to the term creeper, which we do in Facebook
and other social networking sites.
On the downside, you get no responses often, but sometimes you do and that’s when you get lucky. That rate differs from person to person, and the reason is obvious. You also end up being immediately critical of how the person looks, which is a negative for me, even though that is the main criteria a lot of us look at, at least at first, then we check to see if they are a 7 out of 7 Catholic, and basically whether they agree with the teachings of the Church, etc. So a few weeks back, I was chatting with this one girl and she suddenly disappears, this is what is termed as the “lame exit”. They just disappear. Online dating does give you an ego boost though when you get a notification in your email that someone viewed you profile or sent you an emotigram or message.
You can communicate two ways, emotigram with a very short message or a long message, at least on Catholic Match. That’s not a guarantee they will respond though. The other day, I received an emotigram from a mom with three kids, lol. To be nice, I responded with, "thank you for the emotigram." I think it’s good to respond, unless of course, you receive a hundred messages or emotigrams at a time. Then she replies with “how are you?” Unfortunately, I was currently chatting with someone from the Philippines. This was before meeting my current long distance girlfriend on another site, who we will just name as C.C. So back to the point, I’m going to have to let that person know that I’m not trying to lead them on. But still, responding is still better than not when it comes to courtesy. It always good to make new friends. So on to the tricky part, long distance relationships.
That being said, internet dating is not for everyone. You almost always need to be careful of what site you're using or who you're talking to. Safety is always a top priority so when you decide to meet that special someone. Pick a place that is in the area of the general public, and if needed, bring someone who can watch from afar if you really want to be safe. That being said, you can be anyone you want to be, although if you create a complete deception about yourself, you will be coined the title of "catfish" which is someone who uses social media or other internet services to create a false identity with the intention to deceive, often for romantic or cruel purposes. Aside from that, express yourself. Show who you are or who you would like to be. Thus the possibilities are limitless so long as you remember to create an authentic version of yourself. Have fun, be daring, but be good. Always remember, you're talking to a real person at the other end of the screen, people who have real feelings and emotions just like you. Internet dating can be just as heartbreaking and stressful as in real life. So leaving final suggestion, present yourself any way you like, but be most of all, be kind. Words are some of the most powerful gifts we possess, whether we use speech, or a keyboard we always have the capacity to touch someone's heart or destroy it. Good luck, happy hunting, and God speed. :) xoxo
