The computer speaks...

I just realized that it's been a while since my last update about the Online Dating Experiment.

There's not much to report. I'm still getting "winks" and emails from various Matchos. And now I think Match.com is doing the thing where they run my profile through a labyrinthine automated matchmaking system, because all of a sudden lately there's a new category called "Matches." The guys in this category don't appear to have sought me out on their own. They appear to have been called to my attention because we have stuff in common. ("You both like food!") I think these guys are getting my profile under their "Matches" link too.

When I click on said link, it takes me to a Matcho's profile, and I can't see the next guy's profile until I decide if the first one is a "Yes," "No" or "Maybe." Of course I click on "Maybe" because MAYBE I want to see who else the computer might be matching me up with. MAYBE I want to go back to only meeting men in the real world. MAYBE I can't wait for my month-long subscription to be up so that I no longer have to judge the worth of complete strangers based solely on their interests and photos...

Okay, I'm done with the maybes.

I will give props to one of the Matchos. He viewed my profile and—like me—felt that connecting with me on Match is impersonal, so he searched for my username on MySpace instead. Sure enough, I have the same username there too, so he sent me a long message on MySpace. This was nice because I could see his profile too, and for some reason you can find out more about a person on MySpace than on Match. (Facebook is even better, but that's neither here nor there.) This particular Matcho stood out to me, not only because of his outstanding investigational skills, but also because he appears to be a gentleman. And he's a good writer, which delights the nerd in me.

He and I are just chatting for now. I'm impatient and would rather just meet in person soon so I can find out if we're a "Match" in real life too. But I think he's trying to play it cool so I will oblige, I suppose.

I have a lot of other opinions and philosophies forming in my head about the concept of online dating (and about online social networking in general), but I'm going to wait till the month-long experiment is complete before I share them. After all, something unique could happen between now and then, and if I were to make conclusions before all of the evidence is gathered, I would be one lousy scientist.

So stay tuned for about two more weeks.