"How different can that be from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter?" I wondered.
"Perhaps I should give it a go?," I thought.
Sitting with my little sister, watching television, an Oasis Active ad came onto the TV. "Why don't you make a profile, Missy?" she asked.
Good question.
"It's not like you have a boyfriend or anything," she said. Fair point, but ouch.
So after much giggling, many "I can't actually say THAT's" and lots of backspacing, I finally created a profile and waited for the requests to come in. And come in they did.
After about a million 'no thanks' rejections to the weird and disturbing profiles that kept asking me to add them, I stumbled across a few that were normal. They had jobs, they have passions and interests, and they looked pretty nice in their photos. So I decided I should give them a chance.
At this point I might add that the power that comes with a dating site like Oasis Active is huge. As a girl you can reject all the creeps and freaks and still have millions of requests. You feel so popular and sought-after. I should point out that for some of the guys on online dating sites, it's like buying a ticket in a raffle or making bets on horses; there are more chances of winning if you buy more tickets (or bet on more horses)- consequently they make requests to anything that selects the 'female' gender box.
So my online dating experience began with a few odd characters -which had slipped through my picky and highly selective net- who started asking dodgy questions, sending me their numbers, asking for me to add them on FB etc. I was really pretty uncomfortable with this - I wanted to separate my 'virtual' world from my reality. But then, I started getting asked out on dates. Real-life dates with real-life people. It wasn't just 'ilovetrucks69' or 'clawwarriorking' or 'mrdangle21' (yes, the names are just like that), but these people were real and they wanted to meet me. I freaked out. I didn't quite know how to deal with the idea of going on a date with someone who I hadn't met via a friend or a mutual-interest, or a job or at university. So I said no. No no no no no.
Then, one guy asked me and I said yes. We had only been chatting for about thirty minutes but the conversation flowed and he wasn't stupid. He was smart and interesting. And when he asked for my number because he preferred to speak rather than type from behind a screen, I obliged. We chatted and decided that we should meet and, that night, we did meet up. I'm not quite sure why I suddenly decided I was ready to bite the bullet, but I did it. I met with him and we had a glass of wine at a bar not far from my house, and it was nice. It was normal. No-one in the restaurant would have guessed we'd met on an online dating site. And I certainly wasn't about to scream it out.
So now I have deleted my account. I probably won't ever create another one or, if I did, I would go through a well-known company like E-Harmony, where they match your ideals and your traits, your hopes and aspirations with like-minded people.
I will say, though, that it was an interesting experience. I gave it a go. It didn't end in horror or in disaster, merely in a conclusion that I do not yet need to be on a website like Oasis Active. I still like going out and socialising and meeting people in bars, in clubs etc and not from behind my computer. But, if I do change my mind, at least I'll know how to weed out all the dodgy characters.
Images courtesy of: http://www.datingonline365.com/2009_01_01_archive.html
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