(image from here.)
Dating is hard & I was terrible at it. I didn't date at all in high school, when I had a car, & I didn't have a car most of the time I lived in Austin, when I would have had most opportunities for dating. The truth is, I'm not sure that I ever had a proper date, opting instead to "hang out" with someone in the hopes that there might be romance. Almost certainly anything that might have been construed as a date in my past was advertised & presumed to be just two friends spending time together. If it ended with something romantical, it was always a surprise to me.
One thing is true: I never went on a blind date. I met potential partners through work, or the radio, or in class. I met two of the women I've had long-term relationships with - including the one I married, with whom I've been in a relationship for two decades - at a bus stop.
In the mid-90s though a few of my friends, unlucky in love, began meeting prospective matches in chat rooms online. These seemed less expensive & slightly less weird than arranging a date through what were called "personal ads" in the back of alternative weekly periodicals. I did myself do some online chatting, & wrote emails to strangers I met online, but although I was somewhat awkwardly flirty, I never encouraged anything romantic because of the same reason I never had a blind date - I did not want to have any expectations shattered, as they almost certainly would be.
Listen: a few times girls called me on my radio shows & asked me out. I would tell them to come by the show. More often than not, meeting me in person was a huge disappointment for them. They could easily leave because I had a show to do; sitting across from me at a restaurant would have been torture for them.
But I was paired up & on my way to marriage when dating apps started being a thing. I probably would have avoided them, too. Not because I have some weird judgment about them - I don't! If I thought I had the slightest physical attractiveness, I would've done everything the way the people I knew did them: invited people to visit me from chat rooms across the country; went on blind dates; even made a dating profile for the personals. I just knew that I make terrible first impressions. What might be interesting about my musical choices is not reflected in my ugly mug.
Whether online dating is a good or bad thing depends on the user - I have no opinion. It's such a big part of so many people's lives now, though! I am impressed. & also glad I don't have to use it. Because like I said, I wouldn't. & people would think I felt too good for it or something.
Maybe if there were an app for meeting people at bus stops...
In the mid-90s though a few of my friends, unlucky in love, began meeting prospective matches in chat rooms online. These seemed less expensive & slightly less weird than arranging a date through what were called "personal ads" in the back of alternative weekly periodicals. I did myself do some online chatting, & wrote emails to strangers I met online, but although I was somewhat awkwardly flirty, I never encouraged anything romantic because of the same reason I never had a blind date - I did not want to have any expectations shattered, as they almost certainly would be.
Listen: a few times girls called me on my radio shows & asked me out. I would tell them to come by the show. More often than not, meeting me in person was a huge disappointment for them. They could easily leave because I had a show to do; sitting across from me at a restaurant would have been torture for them.
But I was paired up & on my way to marriage when dating apps started being a thing. I probably would have avoided them, too. Not because I have some weird judgment about them - I don't! If I thought I had the slightest physical attractiveness, I would've done everything the way the people I knew did them: invited people to visit me from chat rooms across the country; went on blind dates; even made a dating profile for the personals. I just knew that I make terrible first impressions. What might be interesting about my musical choices is not reflected in my ugly mug.
Whether online dating is a good or bad thing depends on the user - I have no opinion. It's such a big part of so many people's lives now, though! I am impressed. & also glad I don't have to use it. Because like I said, I wouldn't. & people would think I felt too good for it or something.
Maybe if there were an app for meeting people at bus stops...
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