Contributed by: Jet on Wednesday, December 09 2009 @ 02:30 pm
Last modified on
Over at geeksdreamgirl.com, I see scores of people whose online dating experience suffers because they're uncomfortable with the writing process. Maybe they don't know how to toot their own horn without sounding arrogant, or maybe writing just isn't their forte. Unfortunately, in a text-based Internet, writing is the skill that can make or break a date and for some people, due to location or other factors, the Internet is their best or only choice.
I saw an old episode of Full House the other day, where the father, using an old dating service, is forced to watch videotapes of prospective dates. It got me weighing the pros and cons of video profiles.
While it's not as good as meeting in person there's no pheromones, or even the overly cloying perfume that might turn you off a video has several advantages over a text-based profile:
Of course, there are also major downsides. A dating profile is kind of like a job application you want to make the best impression possible. Many people, including yours truly, lock up at the sight of a video camera and act completely unnatural, which is much more disastrous than a typo.
This is also a case where technology can be your enemy: it's easy enough to make a video today that it's really tempting to make something at 2am and throw it up immediately. It's also tempting to try to do something cool to make yourself stand out, which is almost always a mistake.
There are video dating sites out there, and maybe for those who do better on camera than on paper, that's the best option. But the sites with the largest pools are still primarily text-based, and perhaps, for people like me, that's a blessing. Regardless of the medium, take your time crafting your profile, and make sure you're sending the right message.