Disintermediating friends: Online dating displaces other ways of meeting (2019) [pdf]
I found a good match via online dating recently, but only after about half a decade of usage. I honestly cannot stand online dating. In all my years real-life dating, online dating had substantially worse experiences.<p>Last winter on a &#x27;Zoom date&#x27; one match multi-tasked while I was trying to talk with her. She was literally shopping.<p>Another &#x27;left the chat&#x27; after I said I wasn&#x27;t a property developer, I was a software developer. I hesitate to even mention this because it practically reveals my identity to friends who know that story.<p>I&#x27;ve met women who chatted for a while, and setup a date, only to finally reveal at the 11th hour that they are seeing someone. Sorry! I&#x27;ve also met women who used very, very misleading photographs in their profiles.<p>I&#x27;ve had &#x27;matches&#x27; who return curt answers to very simple conversational questions, as if how dare you attempt to grace their presence with your messages. I&#x27;d take a non-reply over that sort of signal. I would not be texting them in the first place if they hadn&#x27;t also swiped right on me.<p>My real life experiences dating someone from Meetup&#x2F;College&#x2F;Work had substantially more honesty and humanity. In online dating, I truly feel there&#x27;s a loss of treating others like human beings instead of a disposable item. And to be fair, I am guilty of that sin as well.<p>But for all the talk I&#x27;ve heard from my female friends about how guys are awful on online dating (and I believe it), I can assure you that it&#x27;s not any easier on this side.