Have you briefly talked to a guy, swapped names and work place info and than gone home with your fingers crossed, hoping that he is rocking laxed privacy settings on his social networking sites? Yes? You aren’t alone. Social networking has started to take the blind out of blind dating. The days of asking your friends Do you happen to know so and so? have been replaced with already knowing who is connected to because you’ve checked out his friends list.
Before meeting up with someone new, it’s hard not to creep him a little right? Perhaps find out what kind of topic trending he’s been doing on twitter, determine how much he travels by his range of photo albums, or at the very least confirm that his status is single. It’s hard to remember a time that this info wasn’t readily accessible. Here are few things we should remember when performing our own background checks pre-date.
Open profile “ open mind:
It’s hard not to make assumptions about people when you’re looking at their profile. When it comes to getting creepy on your latest conquest you may unfortunately have to reevaluate your deal breakers. What if there is a reason he has posted something, you know, an explanation for why he has Speed 2 listed under his favourite movie list (here’s hoping he lost a bet). Try to avoid making grand judgments about his behaviour through his photos and wall posts. I mean, those pictures of him doing a kegstand, shirtless, with his face painted could have been posted forever ago! Also, we all have crazy nights that have some how become digitally documented don’t we? Unless you find something crazy offensive (you’re a vegetarian and he loves slaughtering kittens on the weekend) “ try and stay positive.
Don’t fill in your own blanks:
It’s easy to get caught up in creating your own narrative when you’re looking into someone’s online footprint. I mean all of the characters are there, so why not make a plot right? Trust, whatever he has going on is likely less boring than the imaginary life he is living in your head. That girl that keeps posting on his wall miss you and call me soon “ yeah, all right, there is a small chance it’s his girlfriend that he’s been in a long distance relationship with for the last few years, but it also could be a just a friend he used to have a hilarious time with in his political science tutorials.
Always remember, just because there are 1000+ people following him on Twitter, and he has 565 friends on Facebook that rotate writing on his wall – DOES NOT mean automatically mean these are his closest friends.
Be careful, it can’t end before it begins:
If you can, try and keep it organic and don’t do any pre-creeping at all. Who knows, something may slip out like so how long have you had a dog? and he will wonder how you already know that “ see what happened there? You decreased the chances of a date number 2.
So, be honest “ you creeping someone right now?
