When it comes to dating online, you basically have a choice between dating online personals through sites like Craigslist, or going through a dating site like eHarmony. There are upsides and downsides to each, so let’s cover the basics…
Personals…
There’s more of a sense of adventure to personal ads. Since there’s no screening process and no membership requirements, you are always in for something interesting when you give someone a call through an online personal.
The advantages to this are plentiful: no matter what you’re looking for, someone out there has posted the ad for you, whether or not they’re in line with what dating sites wanat.
Now the downside there is that since there’s no screening process, you have to weed out the weirdoes yourself (hey, unless you like weirdoes). You need to keep safety in mind, of course. Whenever meeting a new person, meet somewhere public and make sure your friends know where you are. The stories of Craigslist meetings gone awry are a little overblown, but they do happen.
Dating Sites
With dating sites, you get quality control, so to speak. Think of it like the difference between Youtube and watching TV. Youtube has some of the wildest, weirdest, funniest stuff you will ever see, but it also has some of the crappiest videos in the world, videos that you regret watching because they were such a big waste of time.
Well, dating sites weed out all those people who would be just a waste of time. With a good dating site, you might not find true love on the first date, but you can usually at least be sure that you will have a pleasant evening.
But that can get a little boring, can’t it?
So really it all depends on what exactly you are looking for. Bear in mind we are generalizing to a degree, as some dating sites are a little more adventurous while some personal sites have more administrators and moderators. Generally speaking though, a dating site lets you play it safe while personals offer a little more adventure. |