I recently traded notes with woman on Match, who had indicated her interest via one of the various passive aggressive means available on the site. She didn't have much on her profile, but I've been trying to be a bit more forgiving and open minded on the issue. Still, it was no surprise when her repartee turned out to be on par with that profile. One sentence responses that added nothing to what couldn't be a conversation on its best day. Needless to say, once I ascertained she had nothing to say, I quickly blew her off and didn't give her another thought. Until today, that is, when I came across two other profiles with identical verbiage to hers. In each case, their entire profiles consisted of nothing but the following:
'I consider myself to be very outgoing. I can strike up a conversation with just about anyone. But it hasn’t always been this way – I was super-shy as a kid. I’m a social butterfly now, but was definitely a social caterpillar back then!'
What the hell??? Is there some sort of 'dating profiles for lazy people' resource out there?
As you can see, Google has found quite a number of dating profiles, all with the same verbiage.
So, off to this blog I went, ready to launch into the tirade that you know is about to follow. Except something just changed, literally as I typed. When I discovered the other identical profiles, I sent an admittedly mildly snarky note to the first woman; sort of a 'I know you copy/pasted from somewhere'. She replied that Match had a choice of canned profiles from which new users could choose, should they be too uninteresting or lazy to write their own. She might not have said it that way, but I can't remember.
Believe it or not, I'm somewhat of two minds with respect to Match's enabling the boring to be even more so. On one hand, I find that option to be stomach turning. Seriously, profiles consisting of 'I love to laugh' and 'I love the beach' have never looked so good to me. Even if they showed no imagination, at least the words actually came from the person whose profile they appeared in. To use a standard profile just screams 'I have no personality!' that much louder. However, the marketing professional in me admires the site for being creative in generating revenue. Let's face it, dating sites are primarily merchandising vehicles, not unlike eBay or cars.com. They all provide platforms for selling a product (ourselves, the case of dating sites), so attracting and retaining customers is crucial to their business model. Match has created a means by which even the mostly brain dead can create a profile. And since a canned profile won't get much interest unless the owner is attractive, the product will remain advertised for a particularly long time, without being purchased, generating additional revenue for the platform. However, from the perspective of someone who thinks people have lost the ability engage their target dating audience, the canned profile remains something for me to loathe and make fun of.
Happy dating, friends.
Update: I've been trying to spot these cookie cutter profiles and will post the ones I find below.
People say I’m quiet-natured, but I’m actually just a really good listener. I don’t talk as much, because I like to process and think before I offer my opinion.
People say I’m quiet-natured, but I’m actually just a really good listener. I don’t talk as much, because I like to process and think before I offer my opinion.
Update: I've been trying to spot these cookie cutter profiles and will post the ones I find below.
People say I’m quiet-natured, but I’m actually just a really good listener. I don’t talk as much, because I like to process and think before I offer my opinion.
People say I’m quiet-natured, but I’m actually just a really good listener. I don’t talk as much, because I like to process and think before I offer my opinion.
