Days 6, 7, 8- Responding

Are you an instant responder or do you like to play the waiting game? No matter your motives, everybody has their own strategy and reasons. What I want to know is, do you adopt a new one online because you’re online? It seems less real, as if you have less pride to lose and if you’re in the habit of replying quickly to emails would this follow?

How close is this to reality and how you really respond to people?

The Answer is – very close. It’s basically reality, we live in the digital age! So once you go from using the dating site to texting, you’re back on your own turf. But you might have been there already.

A guy I’ve exchanged a couple of messages with since yesterday, has now asked if I want to meet up. I suppose that’s exciting, or should be. We’ve exchanged a few messages in only 24 hours, but something about this proposal bothers me. The cynic inside my head is blaring. We’ve paid real money to use a service, so why not use it for a little longer? At least long enough to assess further whether this person is sane.

(Next day)

I do realise I have been very unwilling to allow anyone to get emotionally near me. I tend to put up emotional barriers, keep people at arm’s length, as if they’re some dirty bug you pick up between two fingers. ‘Ugh, don’t touch it; you might catch humanity!’

I would like to rectify this by being nice to a fellow human, try not to take any kind of situation too seriously or suspiciously and actually enjoy the company of a person. So after realising that I am a totally unhinged sceptic, I thought that agreeing to meet a stranger from the internet could actually be an attempt at a positive step in the relationships-with-humans direction.

But hold on! I’m willing to be open to other people, but not to have my limbs hacked off. I still want to check this person is vaguely normal. I know you’re thinking that you can’t be totally sure so even when and if the big step comes of a face-to-face meeting, there will be further precautions in place.

Unless you live in the real world, you meet most people in your life in the flesh before exchanging contact details. This new way all seems very backward to me.