Friendships: The “B” Side of Online Dating

Nobody walks into an online dating site and thinks, "Wow! I'll bet this is a great place to make friends!"

But why not?

We meet people every day - at work, school, events - that we get along with just fine but don't want to date. While it may not be your goal, don't close the door on the possibility that the person sitting across from you, while not the perfect date, just might be a perfect friend.

I'm fortunate in that some of my best male friends have come from my online dating experiences. While my long-term boyfriend and I did not meet on an online dating website, he's met pretty much every one of the awesome guys that I met in those places. Why? Because they're awesome people. We dog sit for one another, play trivia on Sunday nights together, watch the Super Bowl together...they're great guys. He knows where my heart is and without all of those dates that showed me what I didn't want, I wouldn't have found the man that I actually do want. When you invest yourself in online dating, you already know more about someone you're seeing for the first time than maybe many of that person's coworkers. Take advantage of that. If you can talk for hours but there's just no chemistry, ask your date if they'd be open to being friends.

Granted, not everyone is looking for more friends, but look at the scenario this way: you liked one another enough to meet. What's to say that you won't like each other one enough later on to share time with them as a human being, too? It's almost hilarious when one of my guy friends brings a double date with my boyfriend and me. They invariably ask, "How do you guys know each other?" Well, we're always honest and there's always a chuckle.

"We met online." And then I lean over and squeeze my boyfriend's hand and give him a kiss. I'm glad he can share my friends with me.