I Love You, Let’s Meet

I am shocked (for real, not ironically “shocked, shocked”) by this study, esp. this bit

While the women who were surveyed went to great lengths to screen online acquaintances before meeting them, nearly a third reported having sex on the first date and three-quarters of those said they did not use condoms

WTF? First of all, who are these people having unsafe sex with strangers? Dopes, that’s who! Second of all, real life just seems better suited to an impulsive (but still condom-using!) fling than online dating. The first F2F date seems to me like a continuation of the screening process that’s begun online; it’s not set up to be a sex date generally. (Unless of course it is, which the study should have been clearer about — if “let’s fuck now” craigslist ad posters are mixed in with the cautious True.com types they’re describing, then the study doesn’t tell us anything.) Whereas if you meet someone out in the world, the spark or chemistry or whatever more defines what’s going to happen. Or so it seems to me.