Over pints of micro-brewed beers at Pony Bar in Hell’s Kitchen, my friend eagerly dished on the many attractive qualities of his potential love interest. His college, current law school curriculum, interests, hobbies. Oh, and the fact that he’s gorgeous.
“Have you met this guy yet?” I asked. “I thought you two were being set up.”
“We are,” he said. “I Facebooked him.”
For me, that sparked an intriguing question: Has Facebook killed the blind date?
While I may be a little more than rusty when it comes to dating, I still feel fairly certain that part of the excitement when it comes to a blind date is the mystery. What is his personality like? What do we have in common? What does he look like? That is why they call it a blind date.
However, social media has allowed us all to put forth as much or as little information about ourselves as we want. From the good:
Me and the Saint Louis University Billiken. Adorable.
TO the bad:
Not exactly the best first impression for a potential date.
To the ugly:
Not me. My profile is immaculate.
Between Facebook, MySpace and the no-longer-taboo (or-is-it?) Internet dating, it is now virtually impossible to go on a true blind date. While I am partial to the old meet-your-significant-other-in-high-school, this isn’t all bad. No longer does one have to worry about awkward silences on a blind date—just think back to their profile!
“So, I heard that you are into The Arcade Fire. I heard they were coming to Madison Square Garden in January. . . blah blah blah.” Simple.
This is not to say that all blind dates will be a homerun (although my friends’ seemed to be!), but we might want to start calling them only-seen-your-profile dates.
laurenbegley
