photo credit: jimmyroq

Do you remember the first time you heard of online dating? If you’re over 30, you probably thought it was something “experimental.” It was either for your raver cousin with platinum highlights who already owned a cell phone in 1997, or it was someplace for the ex-AV crew kids to meet up. Either way, it was…different. Somewhere around 2004, online dating started to lose its social stigma and transform into a reasonable activity for both your divorcée mom and your ex-prom queen twentysomething sister. Below, I’ll take you on a trip down memory lane, tracing the evolution of some of today’s top dating sites and looking at them way back when they were still struggling to break into the mainstream.

As everyone who has used the internet knows, meeting new people online can be a minefield. We’re warned that when using a dating site, we should be extremely careful, as you don’t know from a couple of pictures and a short profile who the person is, what they’re all about, and what their intentions with you are. As a veteran of such dating sites, I strongly concur with the advice to be careful. But what about meeting friends online? The mines are still there, but its less about them, and more about you. You meet a fun new person online. How do you come off as a cool, likeable person, that someone would want to talk to regularly, and not someone who is completely awkward, weird, or seems to be on the verge of insanity? Here’s a quick list of the Dos and Don’ts of meeting new friends online:

Until just a few short years ago, I wasn’t very sociable. I wouldn’t have considered my self a loner and I always had people around me but I definitely wasn’t as outgoing as I am today. I don’t really know what changed in me. I’m not sure if it was because I just grew up, or I gained more confidence or if I just became indifferent to what other people thought of me.