One day I woke up and realized that everything about on-line
dating made me feel as if I didn’t measure up. But measure up to what exactly?
I’m still trying to figure that out. I have friends who on-line date regularly,
successfully and who even seem to have fun with it. I’m still not sure what I was doing wrong;
but I do know that even after years of profile tweaks, following advice in
articles about how to do it successfully, more profile edits by male and female
friends, periods of actively sending out messages, or winks, or ratings usually
followed by crickets and then periods of despair and petulant avoidance... I still rarely had positive experiences.
The realization that on-line dating failure was actually
hurting my self-esteem was a particularly tough moment of truth. The fact that
I could feel rejected by (perceived) legions of eligible men in cyber space,
and that this feeling was affecting me so deeply shocked me.
In real life I am confident, sometimes overly so. I am
fiercely independent. I think that I’m pretty. (We’re not supposed to say that. Ever. Are we?) Much of the wonder and fabulousness of being
thirty-something is coming into my own ability to be true to myself at all times,
knowing that people are free to take it or leave it, and understanding that the
ones who choose to take it are the only ones who matter.
Yet somehow, the cumulative effect of on-line dating has
left me feeling less-than. Less than
my friends who can easily book four dates with four normal guys, in the time it
takes me to get a single message back from a non-creepster in my age range. Less than the hundreds of other girls in
my neighborhood with profiles who all must be prettier/younger/wittier/friendlier/easier
to match than me, and who are undoubtedly having fabulous dates all the time. Less than what I know I actually am.
Once I had this realization though, the action plan was
clear. Complete and total demolition of every account I had ever created.
Match. OK Cupid. E-Harmony. Chemistry. Obliterated.
I’ve opted out of cycle, and it actually feels pretty good.
But, sometimes when I’m feeling particularly lonely I still contemplate logging
back into an old account (They never let you actually fully delete them you
know.) “just for fun” or “just to take a look”. This is when I take a deep
breath and spend an hour organizing my closet, or re-folding all the clothes in
my dresser, or giving myself a mani/pedi. Channel ling my unrest into something that
makes me feel good about myself, even if it’s a silly project, gets me in a
positive mindset. Which is where I need to be here in the real world.