Digital Dating Evolution

After all of the Facebook privacy issues, I thought Tom Anderson might have the last laugh when we all wound up back on MySpace. On a whim I even went back on to the site to check out my profile. Surprised that I remembered my login, I stumbled upon the following profile of my younger twenty-something self.



Luckily I've grown up enough to know that halloween costume profile pics outside the months of October/November are incredibly tacky. But it did get me thinking about how far we've come with flirting, dating and mating in the web 2.0 world and how the entry of each new platform follows the same trajectory that we do as we grow up and seek out potential partners. From mild flirting on Friendster that is reminiscent of highschool years to resume dating on Facebook that reminds me of the criteria I used to find a guy in my early twenties, below is a quick "e"-volution of how social media has helped us find new ways to reach out and tweet, flirt or friend someone.

First there was Friendster, or as I like to think about it, social networking training wheels where the "who's viewed my profle fetaure" let you enjoy the benefits of Match.com while tricking yourself into believing that you weren't online to date. (Sidenote: their new logo looks like a tween skater brand)



Then there was MySpace, the web site that became synonomous with the flip cam pic that later gave rise to guys with Iphones. Blame it on the bold-colored mySpace skins and the music blasting from profiles but it sort of made you feel like you were in the digital equivalent of The Hard Rock, Las Vegas partying with people you would never see again from states that don't border on any water. The anything goes attitude was kind of hot until the last guy that friended you suggested meeting in an Applebees parking lot and said he'd be the one in the blue truck blinking his headlights.

Or as I like to call it the website that established resume dating. Who needs an elaborate "about me" section when you can list your ivy league school and show off douchie pictures of yourself at friends' weddings and on adventure vacations. This site is every reason why the guy that looks great on paper can only get h*rd during episodes of Resue Me. (oh no I didn't)

AKA take a walk on the wildside. It's sort of like the sex club your German boyfriend makes you go to after 6 months of monogamous sex which you thought was good but apparently missed the mark. Here anything goes, even primal urges that force grown men to wear those protective cones you put on a dog after surgery and then Next you when you refuse to "lick your elbow" on command.


The most substanative site of all. With witty tweeps a plenty you can get to know someone based on their commentary, opinions and observations. The repartee coined as "flittering" has even been linked to the same feelings of true love. Plus its the only place where you can "follow" someone without being creepy. That is unless your twitter handle is at @jvandersloot.

We've come a long way baby!

Chatroulette Test Drive

Logging into Facebook is as comforting as finding a neighborhood bar to call your own. Its where you go when you want everyone to know your name, where you work, what you ate for breakfast and what you think will happen tonight on Lost.

But the hard truth is, even with 500+ friends Facebook can start to feel claustophobic. Between checking out an exes vacation picture to hearing that your boss just burnt a batch of meatballs there is no way to compartmentalize your work, social and dating lives. Enter Chatroulette, an exotic outlier, created by a Russian teenager, where you use webcams to talk to an endless stream of anonymous strangers. If you aren't into the person you simply hit the next button. Think Missed Connections meets Let's Make a Deal (but in most cases you really don't want to). The good news is, here no one cares where you went to college. The bad news is 1 out of 3 potential chat partners have their balls out.


My Chat Roulette session was short lived but included two red-neck guys saying I was "kind of" hot, one young European girl who looked eerily like me and finally one bloated man laying in bed with a white t-shirt on and nothing else asking me "what's for dinner?" If Facebook is your neighborhood bar this place is like a creepy club where someone trys to slip you ruffies.