It's a busy community, it's friendship,
it's dating, it's romance - it's Sparkle.

for more info, visit JoinSparkle.com

Why Online Dating is Such an Out of Date Concept

Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by Andrea in Lifestyle, Relationships and Dating

If someone invites you to a dinner party and introduces you to lots of new people, do you only make conversation with those whom you consider could be your next conquest or your lifelong partner? If you start a new job or join a gym or start a night class, do you only want to be friends with the attractive and available people? Of course you don’t, it’s a ridiculous notion.

Given the opportunity to meet new people, most of us will happily chat and exchange ideas and experiences in the hopes that we might find new friends. When we do, we nurture the friendship by chatting on the phone, texting or emailing and arranging to meet up for a drink, go to a movie or share a meal. In time we meet more people through our new friends and our social circle grows. Sometimes we meet someone with whom we share an immediate attraction and sometimes it takes a little longer for love to blossom.
But most people don’t go around with a clipboard and a list of questions and those who do should read Jack’s advice.

So why do we think that meeting people online is any different?

The Internet is simply an extension of our social interaction tools and millions of people keep in touch with their friends and family online in the same way they used to do by phone and before that by letter. Communications have simply evolved and for many of us the Internet has become our primary vehicle for conducting social relationships; it’s quick, cheap and fun.

In the 21st Century people meet people online in exactly the same way as they do at a party or any other kind of business or social function and the same rules apply. You chat about your experiences, the movie you just watched, the tracks on your iPod. You find that you have lots in common with some of the people you meet and they become friends. Sometimes friends become lovers.

I am heartily sick of reading blogs and features that try to reassure me that online dating sites are no longer the preserve of losers and weirdos; I never thought they were, but I do think that they’re a completely artificial and out-dated way to meet people.
I don’t want an in-box filled with messages from people who are working their way through a database of ‘potentials’.

I want to chat to people who like the same things I do and play poker or Scrabble with them. I want to see other people’s holiday photos or find out if they enjoyed the Star Trek movie and I want to do it without having to join half a dozen different sites and bounce from window to window in my browser in the hopes that they’ll be on the same site at the same time as me.
Which is exactly how Sparkle operates.

I don’t want online dating, I want Sparkle.

Tags: finding friends online, meeting people, Online dating, online socialising, social media

Andrea Montgomery

Freelance feature/travel writer and author of 2 travel guides, Andrea is a compulsive blogger and Tweeter with an annoying tendancy to behave like Head Girl (presumably because she never got to be one).

Andrea - has written 19 posts on Sparkle in my life. Contact the author

Join Sparkle - Online friendship & dating the mature way!