Monday, March 06, 2006

Electronic Dating

Definition: Electronic dating is when the majority of your communications with a certain person you are 'dating' are via text messages and emails, and you barely--if ever have spoken on the telephone.

In this day and age, the advancement of technology is a beautiful thing to behold. However, it has also taking a lot of the personalization out of relationships, be it business, personal or social. It's so much easier to send a mass Evite to all your friends telling them about your upcoming party than it is to call each and every one. It is also less nerve wracking to drop an email to the person you are seeing confirming details of your date and such than to talk on the phone.

However, the ease of this communication has seriously broken down the dating sphere as we know it. You can email a guy you met online for several weeks, talk via instant messenger for several days and then text each other with your date confirmation...all this and you still don't even have a real feel of what the person is about. We all know that online we only show facets of ourselves, and it's actually very easy to be witty and sound intelligent via email. I mean, facts and figures are all Google-lable, and you can think and analyse your responses before the person even gets them. E-dating allows for a certain editing...you can always hit the delete button if you don't like what you typed. It is easy to get attached with people you don't know via the internet, and it's wierd that you can have a huge crush on someone that you don't even know what his voice sounds like!

Because of the ease of the whole electronic dating, guys have become lazier and lazier when it comes to the simple courtesy of dialing your digits to make plans. They would rather spend several minutes going back and forth with text messages than actually getting all the necessary information with one less than 5 minute phone call. My friend used to date a guy that never, ever talked on the phone, even after they had met. He would rather email her to make plans back and forth or send IMs or text messages. How hard is it to pick up the phone and call?

I don't like e-dating simply for this reason. I believe in making heartfelt connections, and it's hard for me to develop a genuine connection with your computer, pager, cell phone or sidekick in the middle.

Add to the fact that the connection developed is very casual and it's very easy to get dropped easily. After all, all he has to do is send you a break up text message (C u l8r), block your emails, IMs and disappear all together.

There is something about the personalization of the phone and intimate conversations that beckons me every single time. I would get attached more readily to a guy that I talk to and physically date than one that I just e-date. If the e-date doesn't proceed at a normal pace into phone calls and actually meeting...then I'm hitting the delete button.

Your thoughts?

Posted by Vixen @ 2:48 AM :: 14 trainees letting it rip!

Talk to Me!

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