Monday, February 2, 2009

An Open Letter to Men Doing Online Dating

Dear Online Daters,

I understand that you have chosen online dating as a way to meet nice girls and are hopeful that it will bring your soul mate into your life. Or at least give you someone to talk to and perhaps make out with. Or it gets your mom off your back about "meeting some nice girl". Or whatever.

Or maybe you selected online dating after meeting nothing but bimbos in bars. It's understandable. You've already tapped the available dating pool or maybe you're new in town. Online dating is a great option.

But let me just share a few tips to help you get through the experience . In addition to basic dating and interpersonal etiquette (like don't get drunk on a first date, don't swear a lot and wear clean clothes) there are some things unique to online dating.

For instance, choose carefully the pictures you post on your profile. Don't post pictures of you wearing a fanny pack and standing beside a Dodge Caliber . Although, as Jazz Hands pointed out, if you are the type of guy who wears fanny packs, then I guess it's good that you posted pictures that reflect who you really are. So maybe what I should say is Don't Wear Fanny Packs.

Also, don't post pictures of yourself without a shirt on. Now if it happens to be a "me and my buddies on the boat, catching fish and having fun" kind of picture and you are all shirtless and wearing sunglasses: fine. But the "I'm alone in my apartment and used the self-timer on my camera to take this photo of me posing without a shirt on" kind of picture is just weird. Even if you have an attractive shirtless upper body. Just weird.

If you have any questions or need additional clarifications about what not to do, let me know. I'm here to help.

Sincerely,
Charlie

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