So you’ve decided to try online dating. Your first hurdle; the online dating website profile. Where you describe who you are, what you’re about, post some images, and hope for the best. Not as simple as it might sound. Expressing yourself HONESTLY is the key, and sadly the problem for a tremendous amount of people. But hey, we’re only human.
Let’s face it, most of us don’t have the writing savvy or experience to sum up much of anything, let alone something as complex and wonderful as ourselves! Using one’s charm and wit has been the mating method of our species for too many eons to simply ditch it in favor of setting up a clever profile. So we struggle to sound perfect, and we use alluring description of ourselves and our lifestyles. Representing oneself honestly was not as much of a challenge before, it the face-to-face world. Nowadays, when one is looking for soulmates in a place as scary and misleading the world wide web, sometimes Photoshop skills are more useful than someone’s ability to dress well. Want to come across as a good catch? Bust out the thesaurus. Or better yet, go online to someone else’s profile and steal whatever they wrote, as long as it sounds good!
Get real. People simply aren’t as naive as they once were about social networking and dating sites. Now, more than ever, is a time to truly be who you are, to the best of your abilities. A kind of technological paranoia has swept our minds clear of a lot of the nonsense that first came along with the fascination of the online world. Now we are suspicious around every corner. The internet is overflowing with horror stories about phonies and fakes pretending to be so much that they are not. Why on earth would people do this, I have to wonder? You’re eventually going to meet, that’s the point of the whole online dating exercise, so why misrepresent yourself so blatantly?
When engaging in online dating, looking for that perfect soulmate dating situation, always and only be yourself, as best as you can represent yourself. Sure, it’s tough when you only have that little amount of space and you don’t know what to say. Think of it as a haiku, the constraints are only there to make you express yourself better. Of course you want to put your best foot forward. Don’t fall into the trap of putting forward a foot that isn’t yours, because it’s something you just can’t deliver in person! Another helpful idea is to write your profile as if you’re describing yourself to someone you already know. This is a very good way to tell if you’re being misleading in any way. When it comes to your online dating gallery, try posting more of the normal, every day images of yourself. Avoid fancy, primped and proper images like you in a tux, or showing off your car or boat. Use REAL pictures of yourself having a good time with friends, or just kicking back and being you.
At the end of the day, you’ll still be you. And aren’t you really just looking for someone who wants you for who you are? Don’t cheat yourself and that special person out of the pleasure of knowing the real you, even at the very beginning. Start with every word and image you use in your online dating experiences!
