Dating twenty years ago was difficult enough. Dating nowadays is nearly impossible. When ways of meeting people emerged across online dating and then mobile platforms, your digital footprint has started to take precedent over live personal appearances. Here are some tips to make sure your online reputation reflects your real-time personality.
Steve Ward, one of the dating industry’s most respected matchmakers, is here to tell CraveOnline about the ins and outs for success in a digital dating world. Known best as the host and executive producer of VH1’s Tough Love, this fall Steve is launching Love Lab® (http://lovelab.com), an app that double (and triple) checks your online and mobile matches to make sure they’re legit.
Dating in the Digital Age
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Talk instead of text
You want to make sure you’re not wasting your time online or setting yourself up for disappointment in person so it’s important to speak with someone before you meet. Texting can be misconstrued and create a bad impression of someone. And if you make it too easy to text they’ll never talk through anything down the road.
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Do your homework
The more you learn about someone the easier it is to find out more about him or her on your own. For example, if you know their name and the company they work for, or college they attended, you can probably find them rather quickly on a professional, or social networking site. Verifying someone’s name and age is fairly easy to do through public record searches but criminal background checks aren’t always reliable especially if someone is intentionally trying to deceive you.
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Clean up your social media
Think about the pictures you see others post that make you cringe. Don’t share similar updates. Delete your embarrassing videos. Un-tag your unappealing pictures and change your privacy settings where necessary. Go back a solid year on your timeline. If he or she is going that far into your past you’ve got more important things to worry about than ancient posts by social media’s standards.
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Be accountable and thorough
When you say that you’ll call, you have to actually dial the person and leave a voicemail. If their mailbox is full or you are otherwise unable to leave a message follow up with a text to say you tried to call and you’d like to know when they’re free to chat. If you let someone know that they can expect to hear from you by a certain point it’s up to you to follow through.
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Stop and think before you do
Impulse control has seriously deteriorated thanks to the instant gratification we get from submitting a search, sending a tweet, or posting a pic. Text messages can’t be taken back and sometimes stuff hits the social ‘mediaverse’ and can never be deleted for good. Before you send someone anything, always weigh the repercussions first.
