If the AI is going to do all the work, what’re you doing while your chatbot is dating for you?
Online dating the safe way
You may not be looking for love online, but Tinder says about 40% of couples meet via apps. I know a couple who met on a dating app for farmers. They’re perfect for each other — they got married and have two boys and two girls under age 8 with another on the way. But for others, dating apps can be a complete nightmare.
The dirty details
A few months ago, I was trying to convince a friend to dump her loser boyfriend. We whipped up a dating profile for her. The next day, she had to delete it. Why? Her messages were filled with nothing but … 🍆.
There are so many stories of men and women dealing with creeps, stalkers, perverts and lowlifes. A recent Pew Research survey agrees:
- 38% of online daters surveyed received at least one unwanted sexually explicit message.
- 30% continued to receive contact from someone after they told them they weren’t interested.
- 24% were called an offensive name.
- 6% of respondents received threats of physical harm.
Don’t forget about scammers; some 52% of online daters believe they’ve encountered at least one scam. That’s 63% of men under 50 and 44% of women of any age.
A safe search for love
Looking for love online comes with a warning, but you don’t have to throw in the towel. Practice these tips to find your new sweetie safely:
Look for a verified profile badge. Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and OkCupid have them. If they’re verified, odds are, they’re not using fake photos.
Keep an eye out for photos that look overly edited. Try a reverse image search to see if the photo pops up somewhere else.
Only talk to new matches through the app. If they want to immediately take things to text or another app, that’s a red flag.
Video chat with a match before you meet them in person. Steer clear of people who want to meet up ASAP or don’t want to meet at all. I don’t want you to become the victim of a romance scam.
Want to make new friends? 5 apps to meet a pal online or in your city
Making friends used to be easy enough. You met people at work, your local gym or community events on the weekends. Then the pandemic hit and made it much more challenging to meet new people.
Some turn to dating apps. But those are full of scammers that you don’t want to run into. Things are so bad the FBI issued a warning about dating apps. Tap or click here to avoid these romance scams that have cost victims millions.
6 feet
How closely a stalker can track someone using dating apps Bumble and Hinge. It’s not an exact location but pretty darn close. These apps ask for your location to find potential partners near you, but this is seriously scary.
Scary flaw: This app was exposing precise user location
Most of our daily activities have found a way to be available online. More so in the last decade, dating has shifted to online apps too. Apps like Tinder and Bumble have exploded in popularity, especially during the pandemic.
Google just banned these apps with millions of downloads
Online dating has been around for many years, with apps like Tinder and Bumble exploding in popularity. Especially when people were encouraged to stay home during a pandemic, online dating seemed like the next best thing.