Profiles

When constructing an online dating profile, there’s a lot of focus on keeping negativity out of the profile. What some people may not realize is that the self-summary is not the only area into which negativity can creep. In fact, the image section is a great way to make sure you’re not injecting any unintended negativity into your profile; a picture is a worth a thousand words, after all.

The easiest way to stay positive is to select a picture with a smile. True, not everyone likes the way their smile looks, especially when it’s genuine and not a “pretty” smile. But from the perspective of the observer, the genuine smile is the most attractive of all. When you’re really having a good time, you’re feeling comfortable and happy; you’ve let down barriers. Those visiting your profile will pick that up immediately, and perhaps feel like they know you a little better. They’ll feel that warmth, and feel warmer toward you.

Thus, a genuine smile is often the best choice, even if you don’t think it’s necessarily the most flattering. However, not everyone has a photographer standing by when they’re having a good belly laugh; what then? Well, smiling is still a good option, even if it’s your “pretty” smile that you use when you know you’re in front of a camera. Try to choose an occasion that was relatively candid, even if the smile wasn’t. What that means is, a casual shot standing in front of the entrance to a theme park is still better than a posed glamour shoot from your local department store.

Pictures to avoid are anything that might be construed as anger, aggression or moodiness. You might have been going for “alluring” with your sultry pout, but to someone else, you’re just brooding. In particular, staring directly into the camera can be a little too intense for an online profile pic, especially if you’re not smiling. If you feel you absolutely must convey your pensive, serious look, try looking into the distance or off-camera; at least it won’t be mistaken for a mugshot as easily. Thinking about something happy, even when you’re not actually smiling, is helpful, too - though really if you don’t already have some serious picture you love, it’s not worth spending the time to create one now.

Before your profile has even been clicked, you’re making a first impression with your default picture. Furthermore, some peruse all the images before they even get to the text. Is the impression you’re making as positive as you’d like?

Once you’ve been checking out online dating profiles for awhile, a scary trend emerges: you think you start seeing patterns. Maybe most of the people who tend to like a certain book also tend to like a certain movie, or have certain political beliefs. Maybe most of the people with wild-colored hair and glasses also tend to like a certain graphic novel. Even more strangely, sometimes those people even sound a little bit alike.

The first time it happens, you double check to make sure you’re not seeing a literal copy-and-paste profile, but nope, they’re just very similar. And at that point, you’re in danger of heading down a slippery slope: stereotypes.

In online dating, the one danger is that you could start to think of people in terms of numbers, “types,” profiles, typos - anything but an actual person with unique characteristics. Because the truth is, even if two people share all the same interests, there’s no guarantee that they have remotely the same personality. How many of us have run into someone we should be fast friends with based on interests, but absolutely can’t stand? Now imagine that everyone is judging you based on your hobby-doppelganger.

Now, there’s a difference between characteristics that aren’t healthy for you and stereotyping someone. For example, imagine Kate isn’t having any luck with relationships. She analyzes her former flames and decides that the problem is that the majority were alternative-type men with tattoos. Next time, she decides, she’ll avoid men with tattoos.

In reality, the body ink was not the problem or the true common link; the lack of commitment and sheer arrogance was. And the next man Kate dates, the suave businessman who golfs and sneers at everyone, is no different.

In stereotyping, we’re looking at a set of outer characteristics and deciding we already know everything we need to; it doesn’t usually have anything to do with the actual personality. If you receive random, anonymous hateful messages, they’re probably from someone who’s been doing some stereotyping themselves, with toxic results.

The obvious problem with stereotyping is that it can cause you to skim rather than read properly. You could become jaded and feel like you’ve “seen it all,” and maybe it’ll make the profile searching faster - but who knows what you might be missing out on? When you sit down to peruse profiles, even if it’s your 1000th, remember: you’re not trying to rush through your homework. You’re searching to find and meet a human being who seems fun, interesting and maybe even compatible.

So about that whole "lying in your online dating profile" thing...

You shouldn't do it. I know it. You know it. I know you know it. You know I know it. And yet you're going to do it anyway. Or, at least, you'll be tempted.

I get it...you want to put your best foot forward, and sometimes it feels like the only way to do that is to invent a totally new foot.

Here's the truth: you don't need that new foot, and it's more likely to hurt you than to help you. Here's why you shouldn't lie in your online dating profile:

Reason #1 - It's not fair to you.

• You're selling yourself short if you aren't honest in your online dating profile. You'll never find someone you're really compatible with if you lie about who you really are. Instead you'll wind up with someone who's perfect for the person you were pretending to be, which won't make either of you happy. Do yourself a favor and be honest so you can meet a match who is actually right for you.

Reason #2 - It's not fair to them, either.

• Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot (sorry for all the feet metaphors today). Would you be happy if you fell for someone, only to find out later that they were nothing like the person they pretended to be? You'd feel cheated, angry, resentful, maybe even humiliated. That kind of dishonesty will end the relationship the moment it is revealed.

Reason #3 - It's a lot of work.

• Seriously - inventing and maintaining a good lie takes a lot of effort. Unless you're some kind of sociopathic supergenius, you're probably not going to be able to pull it off. At some point your story will slip, and then you'll be in serious trouble. It's better to tell the truth from the beginning than to have to constantly cover your tracks.

Reason #4 - It's not a quality people look for in a relationship.

• Have you ever seen a dating profile that mentioned "dishonesty" in the list of desirable traits in a partner? No, you haven't. You'll never find it nestled between "Intelligence," "Humor," and "Confidence." No one is looking for a partner who thinks it's better to lie than to be themself. Long-term relationships are built on truth and trust; founding one on a lie is bound to end in disaster.

Reason #5 - It's a waste of time.

• It wastes your time. It wastes your date's time. It probably even wastes the time of someone I haven't thought of yet. Why devote so much effort to creating a profile full of lies when you could be putting that same amount of time into crafting a wonderful and honest profile? The truthful profile will make you a happier match than the dishonest one ever could.

Imagine this: you’ve been at work later than usual and at the end of an interminable day, you stagger over to your computer to check whether you have any online dating site messages. To your delight, you do - and it’s not just one, it’s over a dozen! But wait - a second look reveals that all of the messages were sent from the same person. What’s going on? Is this a glitch?

The first one seems innocuous enough - your standard first-contact email. You haven’t looked at the profile of the author yet, but there’s nothing in the email that would deter you from doing so. Curious, you move on to the next message.

“Oh my gosh!” it says. “I completely made a typo back there! You must have thought I’m such a dunce! I hope this doesn’t harm my chances of getting a reply...” You hadn’t actually noticed a typo, so you turn back to the first message. Ah yes, there it was - your brain filled in the proper spelling and you hadn’t even seen it. Still, nice of them to clarify. You jump ahead to the third message.

“...Look, it was just one tiny typo. I can’t believe you’re giving me the silent treatment because I haven’t passed your silly arbitrary test...”

And the next: “You’re not perfect either, you know. On your profile you use a comma when you clearly should have used a semicolon. Jeez, passed junior high English much?...”

The messages continue along this vein, becoming increasingly agitated, aggressive and even abusive. If you were interested in checking out this profile before, you certainly aren’t now. So what can we learn from this series of unfortunate messages?

First, once you’ve sent a first-contact email, it’s best to wait for a response before you send another one. Really, that’s fair advice for all emails. Sure, exceptions can be made for people with whom you have established relationships - maybe you haven’t heard from a friend in awhile and you’re verifying they’re all right - but for people you don’t know very well, it’s best to just let it lie.

Second, remember to do your proofreading before you send the message, not after. Sending a follow-up or a correction might be acceptable in blatant or offensive cases, like an embarrassing autocorrect or if you mangled the numbers in an address. For a simple and obvious letter swap, just let it lie. Typos happen to the best of us, and one tiny mistake won’t make or break your chances (if the mistake is even noticed!).

Finally, relax and walk away from the computer. Remember that you have no clue when your message will be read, or if the person will have time to respond or check out your profile when they do first read it. Don’t read too much into a prolonged silence. Even the worst-case scenario, where the potential match never responds, is less stressful and embarrassing than going on a twelve-message rant for no reason - and once you’ve crossed that line, your chances are shot anyway. Once you’ve sent the message, it’s out in the ether; don’t sabotage yourself by over-thinking and overcorrecting.

When you’ve first decided to join an online dating site, it can be tempting to just jot down the first thing that comes into your head before you’ve lost your nerve. However, unless you really think you will truly lose your nerve and never come back if you don’t publish a profile that very minute, it can be more helpful to save your work temporarily and revisit it later.

The perks of revision are numerous and broad. First of all, there are the same upsides that there are for editing any work: you’ll have a better chance of catching mistakes if you read it over later. Nothing pulls a reader out of a profile faster than a blatantly misspelled word, or worse, an autocorrect that is completely wrong and inappropriate. Giving yourself even a few hours’ worth of space can save you countless embarrassing moments.

Then there’s the issue of content. When a profile is written in the heat of the moment, the emotion behind that moment tends to permeate the profile. That can be helpful if you were feeling particularly confident, excited and inspired, but not so much if you were despondent, anxious or angry at an ex. Plus, some “spur of the moment” writers might be under the influence of something else, like peer pressure (“Say you like long walks on the beach! It’ll be hilarious!”) or alcohol. By the light of the next morning, you may find more than simple typos: red flags, jokes that aren’t funny, rants, or inappropriate double entendres make frequent appearances.

At the same time, that’s not to say that those first-draft profiles are completely useless. Often there’s a candidness or an honesty to such writing that’s harder to get when you’re carefully evaluating each word. Sometimes those “spur of the moment” writing sessions reveal more of the “real you” than would otherwise surface; other times they’re clouded by self-consciousness, bitterness or beer. Luckily, it’s often clearly apparent later which you’re dealing with - and if you’ve got a gem, the trick is to polish it through editing without wearing away the character.

So don’t be afraid to sit down and pour out your feelings on who you are and what you want; don’t fling it out immediately onto the internet, either. Instead, save those candid writings, but don’t be afraid to view them with a critical eye later. It’s the combination of passion and polish that produces a memorable profile.

In the world of online dating, one of the quickest ways to get yourself pegged as a “creep” or “just a hookup” or even a potential spammer is to get explicit. When you talk about more than just romance, whether on your profile or in a first contact email, you run the risk that the reader will start to back away.

For some, this can be a puzzling concept. After all, you’re looking for a relationship or a date, right? And most adult relationships have a physical aspect as well as intellectual and emotional ones. When we talk about chemistry or a ‘spark,’ there’s obviously a physical component there as well. So why is it taboo to talk about such things on your profile?

The answer is this: most online dating sites are intended to be used to find someone to meet, not necessarily someone to immediately date or hook up with. While there are people who use them to look for something a little faster and less permanent than a lasting relationship, they aren’t necessarily the majority. So, in general, the “social rules” are the same as when you meet any random person in public for the first time.

Imagine that instead of an online dating site, you’re actually in a room, mingling with all these people. There will be some who are looking for a one-night stand, and by sending more overt, aggressive signals, they’re broadcasting that intent. Chances are, they’ll find someone likeminded. But everyone else moves a little more slowly; they’re expecting the usual greetings, introductions and small talk. The physical element, the chemistry, is still there, but it’s not typically addressed directly, until the couple is ready to get a little closer.

Thus, it’s not necessarily ‘wrong’ to be more forward about physical desires on your online profile, if that’s your main focus, but you have to be aware that that’s the message you’re sending. If someone is not clearly looking to move quickly in the physical realm, you’re not looking for the same thing; thus, don’t be surprised if emailing doesn’t go well. And if you are looking for a more slow-moving, long-term relationship, it helps to be aware that blunt desire is not the most successful approach. So think about the room full of mingling people; which kind are you?