http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/04/09/googlingyourdate.ap.ap/index.html

The article “googling your date” is about how social network sites are affecting the lives of people who are trying to discover information about a date via the internet. The article explains how the rules of dating have changed for better or worse. With websites like www.facebook.com and www.myspace.com, potential daters are looking up personal information to get a better handle on their dates or their potential dates. With just an email address, you can glean all sorts of personal information about the person before you even meet them. Information attained could be in the form of pictures, hobbies or news about the person. While it is positive to see the same hobbies listed in a potential date, not all information is valuable information. Katie Laird from the article says “Don’t Google what you can’t handle.” You might find a date with a potential fetish that might turn you off, or vile pictures that are inappropriate The question at hand is social networking helping or hurting dating?

I believe social networking helps dating because there is no actual harm in reading a potential date’s online profile. Presumably, the profile you are reading is what the actual potential date wants people to read about them. Googling helps dating because it can help weed out the people you KNOW you won’t have a connection with and you can avoid wasting your time and money. Even if the profile is exaggerated or even a lie , the dater will eventually find out the true nature of the person with the face to face interaction. An interesting point in the article pointed out that some people do not want to admit to googling their date beforehand for fear of looking like a “stalker”. While this might make things awkward, I believe there are more advantages than disadvantages when it comes to “googling when you date.” In today’s environment, if a person has personal information posted on these social network websites, they should expect that a potential date would read the profile in advance. In fact, I would want someone to google me in advance so that I am not wasting my time on someone who may have no interest in me.