This week I have found out that the perils of online dating are not only stranger danger and graphic messages. Oh no. The truth is that while at university, nobody is safe from ‘Fraping.’ It turns out that the online dating site is just another on which your flat mates can publically humiliate you. The embarrassment doesn’t stop there either. The emails have continued and their arrivals have been far from discreet. Most of my fellow Geographers now know that I am in search of virtual love, put it that way.
We have all committed a ‘Frape’ and we have all fallen victim to one too. Unattended laptops and unlocked rooms prove to be way too tempting not to tamper with. People, posing as you, will change your gender to ‘male’ and declare your undying and forbidden love for your friend’s 60 year old dad – tagging him and everything. The world of online romance is no exception. Thanks to others, I have already been blocked twice and appear to be engaged in a long conversation with a twenty five year old woman, who is a few sandwiches short of a picnic basket and hard to get away from. Even when I returned to my room and broke the news that I was into men and men only, she did not give up. Worse still, a guy from Salford who is actually pretty cute, is now under the impression that I am a young offender fresh out of the institution, looking for love in the form of him. Poor guy.
Now, there is also the small issue of the aforementioned, SERIOUSLY EMBARRASSING emails. Admittedly, I could have turned them off, but what I didn’t realise is that I would receive a minimum of twenty a day. I did not expect to be informed every single time someone looked at my profile. I pulled out my phone in a lecture, only for multiple emails to pop up very loudly and in clear sight of the row behind me. If you were on that row, please retract all judgments. Pretty, pretty please. If you were on the 142 bus and witnessed this too, I implore you to do the same.
The conclusion to week two? Sorry readers, I’m afraid that I have yet to secure a date. If my flat mates have anything to do with it, I won’t even be able to get one. Anyway, the truth is, I’m still too ashamed of my online dater status to actually go on a real, face to face date with any of the ‘admirers’ who have ‘hearted’ me. Perhaps I should start turning my phone on ‘silent’… or perhaps I should just stick to eye contact as opposed to winking emoticons and flirty first conversations at the bar, as opposed to on my Mac. We’ll see…
