Another frequent source of Internet dating frustration is the chat rooms. Get in a chat room is live conversation, which is superior to email any day. The kind of conversation you'll get in a chat room, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. The "anything goes" atmosphere plays like a loud fraternity party. Fraternity parties were great . . . when you were nineteen. Now picture forty people acting like horny teenagers, talking over each other in online shorthand, and you'll get a good idea what chat rooms are all about.
I'm 30/m/LA. Any ladies in the house?
Hey, NY!
U look hot, Gina. Got more pix?
Anyone wanna chat privately?
I think that if Shakespeare were alive, he would have written for Buffy.
ROFLMAOU
Nancy!
Poloman!
Wazzup, NY?
24/1'/Boston. Looking for cute boys.
Anyone wanna chat privately?
Goddamn Giants cost me $100.
What's your email, Terminator?
Sux for u.: (
I'm a cute boy!!
I'll suck for you, Polo. LOL.
Phone call. Brb.
Hi, BigHeadTodd.
Ignore him. I'm cuter.;-)
G'night, everybody!
Seriously, Joss Whedon is just as talented as the Bard.
I'm never betting again. No f-in way.
G'night, Hunneybear.
SexxxxxyLexxxxy. Check out my URL.
Anyone wanna chat privately?
Not to generalize, but that's essentially the transcript from any chat room, on any website, at any time. Except in real life, the spelling is much, much worse. It's a train wreck. It's a car chase. It's Jerry Springer. It explains why we're in the bottom quartile in education among Western industrialized nations. In short, this author finds chat rooms appalling. But, hey, lots of people love them just like they love professional wrestling. It's your call.
The positive side is that chat rooms are fast and usually free. Could there be a more predictable indictment of what's wrong with online dating (and the world) than something that is immensely popular because it's fast and free? Especially since all I've been saying for two hundred pages is that you should pay for a service and take it slow?
By all means, do as you please, but also recognize that people are much ruder in chat rooms than they are anywhere else. The simple reason why: because they can be. No one can stop them. No one can yell at them. All people can do is ignore them, which isn't much solace if some jerk starts calling you names for no apparent reason while you're trying to have a pleasant conversation with someone else. No, chat rooms aren't a scam. I just don't think that they lend themselves to good one-on-one conversation, which, to me, is the foundation of any nascent relationship. Stick to writing short, funny, personal introductory emails to a handful of people, and you'll be much better off than trying to get a word in edgewise over a guy named SpazTick who can't tell the difference between "there," "they're," and "their."
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