Online Dating: A Fun Sociological Experiment

Although I’ve never had a very good track record when it comes to dating, I’m not someone who is very keen on using the interwebs to find a girlfriend or just someone to have dinner with on a Friday night. I may be a geek, but I’m also pretty sociable, and there’s certainly no shortage of women in the dance scene. So when a couple of my friends – let’s call them Pepper and Lindy Hop – started using a dating site and talking about the results on their Twitter and blogs, I was pretty skeptical. These are very attractive girls with active social lives: why should they need a website to find a date?

The results have been quite intriguing though! Lindy Hop, who was only looking for casual dating until she left to teach abroad, ended up meeting a guy she’s absolutely crazy about. And while Pepper hasn’t found her dream date yet, she’s seems to be having some moderate success so far. With my current romantic prospects being fairly slim, I’m starting to think that maybe I should give it a whirl.

“Slim prospects?” you say. “Didn’t you just say that there were no shortage of women in the dance scene?”

This is true; there are a lot of ladies who are dancers. The trouble is that, well, I’m kind of picky. Not really in the looks department; my tastes vary pretty wildly in that respect. My real problem is that it’s rare someone really catches my attention with their personality. The few in the dance scene that have are either taken or not interested, which has basically killed any chance for a relationship in the foreseeable future. Even if that weren’t the case though, a relationship would be difficult because the dancers I know either live in Sacramento, Chico, or in the Bay area. I’m sure there are great girls in my current city, but between dancing and substitute teaching, my social life doesn’t really allow me to conveniently meet them.

So why not join a dating site? As my friend Lisa said, “It could be a fun sociological experiment!” Maybe I’ll meet someone who really blows my mind, or maybe I’ll just meet some girls to spend an evening or two with when I’m not out dancing. Either way, I’ll get good practice dating, which will certainly be useful once I get out of this town and back where I belong: Sacramento.