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From The Nerve.
While scrounging around for blog ideas, I came across this amazing photo feature. Anyone familiar with Craigslist is familiar with the infamous “personals” section where a vast range of strange people connect looking to find love, get laid or sell used underwear. In fact, most Craigslist personal ads are just so desperate and odd it’s hard to believe they’re written by real people. But alas, the feature shows pictures of real Craiglist posters along with their personal ad. And strangely enough, they all look reasonably sane.
Personal ads (and the people who respond to them) have always been so intriguing. What kind of person thinks they can connect on an intimate, emotional level with someone they met off…Craigslist? And I guess you can argue that none of the people featured in the article are exactly looking for a relationship, but that does not rule out the amount of people who are. I guess it’s the same as online dating, but there’s just something bizarre about hooking up via “missed connections.”
A few weeks ago, the Engagement 101 team went out to interview couples we found on the street. I remember one couple we found told us they just met the day before but knew each other online. When we asked them where they met online, they said they were too embarrassed to say. But the couple looked so in love and couldn’t keep their hands off each other.
Perhaps I’m not orchestrating my thoughts coherently enough; I’m just intrigued by people who choose to play this Russian roulette game of romance. And I guess the few couples who win the game successfully really have cause to shout their love from the rooftops.
Anyone here meet their significant other via unconventional methods?
yes! I put in ad in Craigslist telling guys to e-mail me their top 10 favorite bands and a link to their myspace (this was 2006). It was completely unsleazy (no pics or weird sexy-craigslist-desperate talk) and I am getting married this November to one of guys who e-mailed me
Oh, wow! That’s amazing. Were you aiming to meet guys or was it just coincidental?
My husband and I met the old fashioned way–in a bar. I guess if you can meet your spouse in a bar then you can meet them on Craigslist (although it does seem like kind of a scary way to look for love.)
I beg to differ that this is a ‘Russian roulette game of romance’. Online ads can be quite safe if one takes the right steps in precaution, i.e. not meeting everyone they chat with online. One, online dating is a filter to narrow down to the best available person on paper/online. Second, you can either choose to meet these people or not and when you do, the online chemistry comes alive in reality, or maybe not. Third, when someone is writing their words and communicating by email or IM, they receiver is more likely to listen to those words and take each word into consideration as opposed to in person.
In essence, personal ads, is just that, someone advertising what they want and what they do not. Of course, in anything, you get the off beat ones, and the hiccups. But in all honesty, if ‘we’ are finding each other online now(by group, category, niche), how can we go against the grain and say people won’t find love online as well?
That’s a very eloquent way of saying it. I think too often society becomes too paranoid over emerging technology and how it rapidly affects the way people communicate today. And there will always be that group of people that will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the other side. (I guess I’m in that group.)