Ripped off
3 Mar 2006Have been too busy lately living life to write about it (cliché time) but a thought occured to me. I finally realised why I hate online dating websites. They are exactly life self-help books.
They make money by preying on your insecurities. You are wonderful, of course: look at all these hobbies you have and witty things you write when you fill in the profile. But you have a PROBLEM: you are single. It’s a BIG PROBLEM: you are lonely and your friends have partners and you have to stimulate your own genitals. But THIS website — with its handy 10-commandments guides to writing the best profile and finding a date and posting the ideal photo — can solve your problem. For a mere US$40 a month.
Yet, like self-help books, the best customers for online dating sites are repeat customers. In my experience of the things, there’s a constant flow of new people coming through and either pairing off or getting sick of it, but there’s also a core of regulars who sign up for the long-term deal and visit every day.
Isn’t the purpose of these things to get you married off and having kiddies or at least shagging someone on a semi-regular basis? Or is it to keep you strung out on false hopes and spririt-crushing rejections to make money? An online business that aims to make money, who’d have thunk it?
[...] The article quotes some interesting figures, at least. Psychology lecturers Elizabeth Hardie and Simone Buzwell at Swinburne University of Technology estimate about half of people in online dating sites are already in relationships and looking for some on-the-side action. This pretty much tallies with my experiences in the vast online dating conspiracy. [...]