the jackpot
by rantywoman
I was reflecting on online dating the other day and came to the conclusion that it is much like playing the slots.
We all know people who have won big and small playing slot machines, but we would never tell someone who is in financial distress, “Well, you can always try gambling.”
And yet, people who are having trouble finding a partner are often told, “You can always try online dating.” Sure, it’s an option, and I’ve known people who have found partners online whom they later married. But online dating is far from foolproof, and while one doesn’t theoretically have anything to lose, I think time, energy, and pride are worth something.
The older one gets, it seems that online dating is more akin to a diversionary night at a casino than, well… I guess I can’t come up with safer methods, other than just living one’s life to the fullest and hoping for the best.
thebitterbabe 
I used to internet date and it was both exhausting and addictive. The flashy, promising date sites are like slot machines beckoning you to have a go. I used to surf them and binge away, looking at row after row of profiles, sending messages, waiting for responses, etc. My ratio was out of ten dates, I might fancy two people and then there would often be a catch – not looking for long term, not wanting children as I did, small penis (sorry being honest), bitter about women or deeply weird. In the end the lows from losing out on yet another chance of love by a margin (see previous sentence) were too devastating. I quit cold turkey. I still feel guilty sometimes that I’m not pushing myself to date but I’m far more content to focus on the other good things in my life and just get on with it. Anyway, it’s summer soon. Who knows…
If you search the box at the bottom of my blog for “online dating,” you’ll find a bunch of posts I’ve written about it, such as this one: https://thebitterbabe.wordpress.com/?s=online+dating+what+happened
It’s funny for me to go back and read them– I sound (and was) angry, but now that I don’t think of online dating as a particularly viable option, I have much less emotion about it!
Excellent. Sure I will identify!
I’ve recently gone cold turkey from online dating. What a relief! Like you say, it wasn’t worth the time, energy and ultimately it was hurting my pride. I was getting so emotional from the build up of hope only to meet the person and feel zero chemistry.