Contributed by: Jet on Saturday, February 06 2010 @ 08:43 am
Last modified on
I've heard this one more than once: “I didn't want to say I was meeting someone from the Internet, so I said I was going on a blind date” or “We told people met on a blind date.” Some feel that online dating has enough of a stigma that meeting on a blind date is preferable. And in some circles, they might well be right. My question is: why?
Why is a blind date so much better than meeting someone through an online dating site? Let's think about what a blind date actually is: someone theoretically close to you (though not always) thinks you would hit it off with some other person, so you go on a date to find out. That's it. The person you might not trust in choosing a sweater for you gives their two cents on your love life, and you listen.
With online dating, you're choosing the potential date yourself. You have at least some hints about their personality and appearance, and you have your gut instinct. Hopefully, you've been chatting as well, and you think there's intellectual chemistry. It would appear to be a much more informed, responsible decision – so why cover it up?
Maybe the appeal of the blind date story – and blind dates in general – is that in a blind date, someone is essentially vouching for the stranger you're about to meet. This may be true in theory, but often the person facilitating the blind date is only acquaintances with one or more of the people involved.
To me, claiming you're going on a blind date instead of an online meeting says more about you – your self-esteem, whether you want to claim responsibility for your decisions or be passive – than what the other person will think. Be bold and stand behind your decisions! If everyone does this, soon we won't be worrying about a stigma at all.