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Written by Jennifer Nickert
It gets harder to meet and make friends with
so many people telecommuting and burying their faces in their
laptops and texting.
Try making eye contact with someone anymore, it’s tough.
Meeting people in the cyber world can be
frowned upon, but with everyone we know now in the cyber world,
you can meet anyone.
I wasn’t ashamed to meet people online, but my friends and family
tried to make me ashamed. I
didn’t care, it’s fun and easy.
If you haven’t braved socializing online yet, let me guide
you by the hand.
If you’re like me you find it difficult to
meet people in real life.
Most people meet others through either their kids (other
parents at playdates, school events, sports), work (I’m self
employed and work from home- no co-workers), or through friends
and family (I moved to a Connecticut where I had no friends and no
family. I’ve had to
start from scratch).
My normal avenues for meeting people are severely narrowed.
I had to get creative.
I first joined a free site called
www.MeetUp.com.
It’s a site for people looking for friends and love who
have similar interests.
You go to the site, and browse the groups in your area.
I typed in my area code and it showed me what was
available. I could
choose as many groups as I wanted.
I found a photography meetup, a singles meetup, a writer’s
meetup and a few others I was interested in.
They are a group of people who have are also interested in
photography, dating and writing.
My photography group has monthly activities where we meet
at a different location and share photos, tips or we go explore
and shoot pictures together.
Another site I have a blast on is
www.Tagged.com, another free
networking site. You
join for free, add a photo and fill in your profile and then you
can start meeting people in your area or anywhere in the world.
My friend Jeremy travels often for his job and he is in new
states for weeks at a time so he uses Tagged to meet women in the
areas he is staying.
He goes to the site and clicks BROWSE.
Then he can put in his criteria, for instance: female,
between the ages of 25-40, single, in area code 48188.
Then the ladies photos appear and then he can view their
profile and flirt with them by either e-mailing them, sending them
a wink, or sending them some luv (it’s a little heart, you are
allowed to send three a day).
There are other ways to catch their attention, just explore
the site a bit.
I’ve met a lot of very fun and some crazy
people from Tagged. I
once met brothers who were flirting with me and my sister, they
didn’t know we were sisters and we didn’t know they were brothers,
we all met independently.
So, we went on a double date and had a blast.
It’s a very easy place to get a date.
HotorNot.com is a fun site to play on also.
Most of the site is free, I’ve personally never paid for
it’s use. I can’t
contact members unless they have a membership, but so many do that
I just wait for one of them to flirt with me.
One of my favorite things about
www.hotornot.com is their
pic rating system.
You place your picture on there (You may place up to three for
free) and the community rates your looks.
I use the site to find out which photo of mine is the most
flattering. I’m
usually rated a high 7 or low 8 out of ten.
I did have a really good run with a blurry mirror pic that
got me rated a 9.
I’ll take my victories when I can.
Their rates for membership are reasonable, so if you have
enough people who want to meet you or send you flirts, you may
consider buying a membership even if it’s only for a month.
Less friendly, but more effective is the site
www.PlentyofFish.com.
It’s a completely free dating website that allows up to 6
photos and searches of people in your area or worldwide.
I find it less friendly or ego boosting as Tagged, but the
matches tend to be higher quality… not counting the one date who
peed with his bathroom door open on our first date.
The site is very basic, you can either e-mail people, put
them on your favorites list or when you view their profile allow
them to see that you looked.
It took me a few weeks to start getting e-mails going, but
now I have tweaked my profile and pictures enough that I have met
several people.
I’ve also had success meeting interesting
people on www.MySpace.com,
which honest to God is not just for teens.
In fact I read an article (so it must be true) that said
the median age of members on MySpace is 34.
You join this free webpage, create a profile and then you
can browse and find old and new friends.
The mother of all networking sites is of
course www.Facebook.com.
My initial reaction to the site wasn’t one of excitement.
It was difficult to meet new people, it seems more geared
towards friends, schoolmates, and family members.
As I spent more time on there, friends from my past started
contacting me, including a few cute ones I didn’t even remember,
but was happy to get to know and their friends.
Then I discovered all the applications and games.
I decided to give their game Mafia a try and met thousands
of people. I joined a
few Mafia groups and the men would just look for a cute girl and
send a friend request.
They have Instant Messages so you can chat and flirt
instantly. It’s been
great for networking, keeping in touch with family, friends and
meeting cute new men.
Just have fun with it.
You may get your feelings hurt, people can be judgmental,
but it’s fun and you can’t catch a fish if you don’t drop a line
out there. Just
remember to stay positive and if a date or emailing goes bad use
it at dinner parties to make your friends laugh.
Bald, fat, ugly, old, unemployed, don’t sweat it, be
yourself and to someone out there you will be wonderful.
You only need one to like you so go for it!
Additional Dating Sites:
www.MyYearBook.com –Free
www.SinglesNet.com – Semi Free
www.OkCupid.com
– Free
www.match.com
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Help with your online dating profile.
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