#FirstDate #FirstDates #FirstDatesIRL #Dating #Cork #RebelCounty #FatherMathewStatue #Ireland #LEGO #OKCupid #CrazyBlindDate #PlentyOfFish #Match #EHarmony #Tinder #Bumble #Hinge
My first experience with internet dating happened 15 years ago when my first wife and I split. I didn’t jump into dating immediately, but when I did, I set up an OKCupid profile because it was free. I looked at, but ultimately avoided, Plenty of Fish. I have not heard very much positive about PoF. I signed up for free trials on eharmony and match, but I decided it wasn’t worth investing money or time trying to find the “perfect match”. I will say that a very good friend of mine got married to a woman he met on Match. I liked OKCupid because it would ask questions that were somewhat important to a prospective partner. Based on responses to these questions, it would give you a percentage of how well you would match with another person. It would also tell you a percentage of deal breakers (though it no longer does that). These numbers didn’t always add up to 100% which was both weird and a talking point if I matched with somebody.
OKCupid created CrazyBlindDate.com in late 2007. From Wikipedia – “Daters would complete an optional questionnaire about their availability, preferred neighborhood for dates and their preferred type of date. They would meet up at an agreed upon location without knowing how their date would look ahead of time.” And the greatest love story of all time came about from CBD.c0m because that’s where Jean and I met. CBD.com no longer exists, but OKC is still limping along. When Jean passed away, I signed on again, but OKC has not kept up with the times.
Tinder is synonymous with online dating nowadays. It might also be synonymous with anonymous hookups, but I never found that to be the case. I did find that there were a lot of scams and disingenuous people on Tinder. While I did match with many lovely ladies, the ratio of losers/liars/scammers to lovely ladies was not acceptable to me.
After a few months of using Bumble, I deleted my Tinder account. In my opinion, Bumble was what OKCupid should have become. The writing prompts and interface made it easier to match with somebody based on what they wrote about themselves instead of solely on their ability to take nice selfies. I also liked the fact that women sent the first message. I feel this allows women to feel more comfortable and take their time sending well crafted messages to their matches. Of course it also means that I’ve received an inordinate amount of messages that simply said, “Hi”, “Hey” or worse yet – an animated GIF of Forrest Gump waving.
At the beginning of the year, I found Hinge. I have to say that Hinge is even better than Bumble. Unfortunately, there are fewer users, but I feel like I’ve gotten better matches with hinge. The writing prompts and ability to record your voice are interesting improvements to the daunting idea of internet dating.
So, what’s your favorite dating app, and which ones do you hate? Please let me know by messaging me on twitter or Facebook. I’d like to know if you were lucky enough to find the love of your life on one of these apps.
