Does this seem like a good way to sell a dating service? True.com thinks so. These ads caught my eye, since they run on my work's Web site, and their radio ads are running in the D.C. area. They make dating seem pretty grim, as if the first thing you need to consider is whether the person is an axe-murderer.
Somebody decided a few months ago that 2004 would be the Year of the Internet Dating Service, because they're everywhere now, including sites like National Review Online. At least True.com isn't as misleading as the other dating services advertised on the Web, who take a stock photo of a pretty model and slap a lame slogan under it, hoping that people will sign up. This is pretty dishonest: young, attractive women don't generally have a problem getting dates, do they?
I guess it's a testimony to the anomie of modern life that we have so many technologies to connect ourselves to each other, yet apparently lots of people can't find a suitable mate without resorting to a computerized bureaucracy. I don't blame them, really -- maybe I'd use a dating service if I were single -- but it's a small indication of how the tendency toward idolizing personal freedom, so common in America, does not produce happier people.
