Social Media Dating

A few years ago, the closest I've gone to social media dating was when Facebook was fairly new and there was this app where you would be selling your photos. I'm not sure if you would believe me if I said I didn't do it to actually meet people. I was just in a race to raise more money than the other people. I was just happy one time when a cute chef who joined Top Chef a few years back bought one of my photos. Hahaha.

For the past couple of years though, I've been feeling like I've been in a rut in terms of meeting new people. Yes I've met some. Unfortunately most of them were younger than me, but that would need a different post to talk about my nuisances about the age of the guys I date. I've met some who were within the same age range, but either I wasn't interested in them that way, or I was interested in them but it wasn't mutual.

So my friends recently introduced me to the phone app Tinder! For those who haven't encountered Tinder, you log in with your Facebook page and some of your profile pics will be seen by others registered with the app too. You set the radius for the location of the men you want to see along with the age bracket you prefer. Since I'm 32, I was pretty generous in setting my age range from 28 to 40 years old. Might as well broaden my scope. When you view the guys' photos, you can also see if you have common friends and shared interests based on your Facebook profiles. When you see their photo you either click on the heart icon, or the X if you're not interested in them. If he clicks the heart on you, you become a match!

To date I've had 56 matches. But half of those were from those I checked out during my Hong Kong trip over New Years.

Majority of them are foreigners, only a few Filipinos. I've chatted with some of them. A couple have reached the extent that we've exchanged numbers and have added each other in Facebook.

Social media dating is quite a different experience though. For one, you're psychologically protected by your phones. I know there are risks. But in the real world, I wouldn't have had the guts to inform a guy I found him cute. But in Tinder, I didn't hesitate clicking on the heart icon if I felt like it.

Then when it comes to chatting, you haven't seen him personally so you're not sure if he looks anything close to his photos. You can't see even guess what his body language is. You don't know if he's just playing with you. And there's the limitations of chatting in the phone. With the guys I chat with using Whatsapp, I would sometimes wonder why they have replied even if I've seen that the message has been delivered (two checks).

Then I found out one guy I've been chatting with was also chatting with my friend. But I guess you can't really expect the guy to chat with only you since you're also chatting with more than one guy. Then there was this one guy who was cute and said hi. Luckily we had common friends in Facebook. And in just a few clicks I find out he's married and has a kid. WTH.

I don't know if it's even possible for people to actually get to know people in media like this. But hey, it's an interesting experience. You get to learn about different cultures. Practice a bit with small talk. Might as well enjoy the ride.