Lately I've been hearing a lot of negativity about social networking/Internet and its impact on modern dating. An ever-growing number of my peers seems to feel that Googling/Facebook-stalking/county-jail-records-ing potential friends or dates is totally counterproductive to developing meaningful relationships. From what I can tell, the basic gist of their objections is that these sorts of things stifle your ability to accurately assess someone in a traditional way; essentially, you will shoot down potential LuUv connections because of a misrepresentative Facebook profile.
This idea is totally wrong. Mildly cyber-stalking your dates and acquaintances is not detrimental -- au contraire, it is a TIME-SAVER. Aside from Bubble Shooter for all and free online essay sites, I'd hazard to say the abundance of trivial information about everyone else is one of the best opportunities the Internet has effected.
For a while, I avoided this sort of predetermination, so I speak from experience. I have "friended" plenty of dudes whose profile pictures involve keg stands and gay shirts ("Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk by again?"). Never, however, has even one of these types aced the real-life-hang-out phase and made me think, Wow, that guy was not a douche at all! Good thing I didn't heed all the tell-tale signs blatantly screaming otherwise!
I've narrowed down my personal social networking deal breakers (for now) to the list below:
1. "Extreme" political orientations of any kind (i.e., "extremely liberal," "extremely conservative," whatever). In my experience, people who use these phrases can absolutely not be taken out in public. They will want to argue with your friends, your parents, some homeless guy, or anyone else who they suspect may harbor even the most slightly differential opinion. It takes copious amounts of time and energy to monitor these types as vigilantly as needed: they like to scratch Bush/Cheney stickers off peoples' cars, or make rude comments to people wearing Obama t-shirts at the bar. Bottom line: these people are exhausting and make me feel stressed out.
2.) Hidden relationship statuses. This is for me to do, not you. Girls that hide their relationship statuses usually just don't want creepers to feel like it's a free-for-all. Guys who do this, on the other hand, are either a) clinging to the smoldering remnants of a past relationship, b) talking to as many girls at once as humanly possible, or c) hoping to be schmoozing the maximal number of girls and praying the universe one day supplies this opportunity. Bottom line: guys like this are sneaky and likely to be dirty cheaters.
3.) Pictures of all their Apple products. Obsessive Apple fans are kind of like the extreme political people, except possibly worse. They will tell you over and over and over how their MacBook was $200 more than, say, a Toshiba or something, they will want to use weird apps on their iPhones NON-STOP, and, perhaps most importantly, they will have little Apple decals bonded to every surface they own, from their fair trade hoodies to their retro bikes or the bumper of their fucking Prius. Bottom line: these people are ridiculously self-congratulatory considering all they did was buy some electronics.
Use your resources.
No comments:
Post a Comment