Have you ever asked yourself what it would be like and how different the dynamics between the single men and women would be if, all of a sudden, meeting people online was banned and all the online dating sites were to disappear?
Although I could only speculate, I am pretty sure that we would see two significant differences in people’s behavior: (1) the men would become much more aggressive at trying to approach and start talking to women, as well as asking women out; and (2) the women would have become a bit friendlier and generally more receptive to men’s advances. Women would also likely make more eye contact with guys in many casual situations that they do today.
The above changes would occur for one simple reason. Too many men and women today rely exclusively on online dating as a source of meeting new people and dating. Online dating has turned into a social/flirting crutch that more and more people rely on without putting any effort into meeting people anywhere outside the online dating world. This means that it no longer necessary for guys to approach the women they want to meet in person. There is no need to hit on women any more if you can open your laptop and send 20 messages in one hour to all kinds of single women in your area. Sure, most of those women won’t respond to those messages because they are themselves overwhelmed by the attention they get from men online, but still – the option to write to women is still there. That, coupled with the men’s lack of practicing their ability to approach and start conversations with women in person makes men far less aggressive than ever before due to the “if you don’t use it, you lose it” effect that not approaching women in person has on the men.
Online dating also eliminates the women’s need to be more outgoing with the guys who try to approach them talk to them. Women are clearly less friendly and are less aware of their surrounds today than they were before. Their radar is down. And who can blame them? Why should a single girl be friendly and make eye contact with the men around her, if she receives ten e-mails a day from different guys who ask her out through one of the online dating sites. And the fact that most of the messages she receives are lame doesn’t help her be more excited about meeting men at all.
If you live in a small town or in an area where there isn’t much going on, online dating might be your only option of meeting people. However, if you live in a bigger city, you should at least limit the amount of time you spend on online dating in order to at least partially restore that part of your personality which would help you meet more people in person.
online dating is supposed to be a supplement for your dating life, not the basis of it. just like how vitamins are a good supplement for nutrition, but they aren’t a replacement for nutritious home cooked meals.
80-90% of the men/women you meet should be in real life. and online dating can cover the other 10-20%.
for someone who is less social, online dating is appealing because it lets you meet people without moving out of your comfort zone. however, without the real life social experience, when you do meet that internet man/woman, you’ll fall short.
so i suggest that people go out, be social and meet people BEFORE they set up their online dating account, so they’ll know what to do when they actually meet the online man/woman in person.