Sunday, July 24, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
"Match Dot Wrong": Who's REALLY to blame in the Match.com sexual assualt case?
Given the most recent atrocity which has taken place through a dating website, it is vital for everyone to take a second look at social networking sites as a viable alternative to meeting and dating online. However, we are still missing the mark when it comes to dating!
A few days ago, a woman on her second date with a man she met on Match.com was followed home and sexually assaulted. The man was later found to have committed prior sex crimes. So is Match.com really to blame? Short answer: not necessarily.
What does Match.com, eHarmony, and other paid matchmaking websites give you that free social networking sites do not? A lengthy online questionnaire which tries to match you with someone of similar interests. This, in itself is a “fail”.
It is a fact that even people with opposite interests and viewpoints can be attracted to one another. In addition to this being a law of science, opposites also attract in the dating world. Look at Arnold Swartzenagger and Maria Kennedy Shriver; Arnold is a staunch Republican while Maria comes from a family of strong Democrats. People of differing religions, races, and cultures are meeting and thriving in healthy relationships all over the world. Time and time again, you have people with totally different ideologies who come together and date!
True—Match.com is a matchmaking service and should bear some responsibility in screening registrants. Yet, this case is a sign of a much larger problem: people are relying way too heavily on technology to run their love lives. We need to take responsibility.
There is a solution. While some might find this funny (and still see it as a taboo topic), social networking sites like Facebook and even Twitter are viable alternatives to meeting singles on paid matching sites. Unlike Match.com, social networking sites offer the ability to see who knows who by friends (or followers), allows you to see dozens if not hundreds of photos, and allows you to actually see what someone is doing on a daily basis via their status feed or timeline. When you think about it, who do you stand to know more about? The person you met at a lounge? The cutie you met on Match.com? Or the firecracker you met from Facebook, with whom you have a history on with some commonalities?
CHA-CHING--I think we have a winner!
Point: when it comes to meeting online, take the power into your own hands. Do not leave it to some “smart pairing technology” to choose who you spend an evening, a few months, or potentially the rest of your life with! Instead of giving you fish to eat (the victim in the Match.com case got rotten fish), you should learn to fish on your own, with the knowledge of how to seek out good mates for you. And to learn how to fish online, I highly recommend my books to teach you the angles:
* From MySpace to My Place: The Men's Guide to Snagging Women Online
* From MySpace to My Place: The Ladies' Guide to Finding Mr. Right or Mr. Right Now Online
* The Facebook Datebook for Men
*Tweet Her and Meet Her
Do it the smart way and do not leave your dating decisions to chance.
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