Jennifer Price

I’ve tried it. My friends were doing it and that was enough to give me the kick I needed to experiment with it myself. Years ago, I dabbled with online dating. My sites of choice were Lavalife and eHarmony.

I met a few guys; the biggest disappointment was a guy that had posted a picture resembling Gilles Marini (he played Dante in Sex and the City: The Movie – who can forget that outdoor shower scene?). In person, he looked 20 years older and he smelled like an ashtray. When I questioned the non-smoker status on his profile, he insisted it said “smokes occasionally” (I checked when I got home, and surprise, he lied).

Overall, I found that it was slim pickings and for me, “meeting” men online felt unnatural. Weeding through masses of random messages that said anything from “hey” to “yo baby, wanna hook up tonight?” felt like a waste of time.

I had a very bizarre encounter with the help of (what I think must have been) divine intervention. I was dating a guy I met at a party. A few dates in, I noticed that I was really starting to like him. One evening, a “voice” came to me that said “go on Lavalife.” As strange as it sounds, I created a dummy profile (no picture and no descriptive information) and the first guy that popped up was said guy. OK fine, no big deal, it was still early. As the weeks went by, I logged in every now and then and I could see he was online regularly (it tells you when the person was online last). I hated that I was creeping him on lavalife! This is so not my style.

One night, we were watching Saturday Night Live and they did a spoof called “Lifeline” with the Lavalife logo. Coincidence? I think not. I had to bring it up. He volunteered to shut down his profile, claiming he wasn’t actively pursuing anyone.

A couple of months later, he was still at it. There were some other issues that were making it less appealing for me to keep dating him, and this was the cherry on top. I brought it up in our last phone call, to which he said he sometimes had trouble sleeping and he had nothing else to do at 2 a.m. (I got the picture…).

True, we had never defined our relationship and we weren’t exclusive or committed. But for me, knowing that a guy I would have liked to open up to was in cyberspace connecting with other women, made it impossible to keep going. I feel like when it’s the right guy at the right time, there will be no doubts and no need for virtual liaisons. All I know for sure, is that I’m thankful for the inner voice that came to visit me that night.

What’s been your experience with online dating?

Could you go on dating someone you knew was actively online?