You may have been exited to try online dating at first, but now you just want to tear out your hair. The awkward profile pictures, the cheesy come-on lines, strangers who pretend to be someone they aren’t – it can all be too much for a normal, sane person to handle. If you want to use a dating site without losing your mind, just keep a few things in mind.
Seeing people act like complete idiots is actually a good thing. Why? Because rather than waste months dating them and possibly falling in love with them, you can cut to the chase by simply reading their profile or emailing back and forth a few times. For some reason people feel comfortable letting all their crazy hang out on the internet, whereas they wouldn’t act this way in person. That’s fine, though, because you just saved yourself a lot of time and heartache by not having to find out this person is a freak months into the relationship.
Get over the stupid pictures. For some reason men like to pose in the bathroom and women like to make duck lips in photos. There is no rational explanation for this behavior; it is apparently something everyone is doing nowadays. You have two choices; date a person anyway and hope they just fell for a stupid fad (and are actually a decent person), or simply ignore anyone who participates in this particular mating ritual. Choosing the second option might narrow your options considerably, which might be a good thing.
Remember that women generally post their best pictures and men don’t have a clue what looks good. This means there are many good-looking men with horrible pictures, and many women who don’t really look as wonderful as their pictures suggest. Adjust your expectations accordingly. Keep first meetings short and simple, so you don’t invest too much time or money into someone who looks nothing like their pictures. On the other hand, you could be pleasantly surprised. Pictures are rarely perfectly accurate one way or another.
Put in some effort. If you’re a man who never gets replies, it may be because your emails are lame and uninteresting. Say something more than “hi, how r u?”. On the other hand, if you’re a woman who is getting emailed by all the wrong types, you may have to search for men you like and email them. Sad, but true.