Too Busy to Meet People Online? Hire Someone Else to Do It

Online dating, in theory, is supposed to make romance easy. It's always been perceived as a convenient means by which shy singles or busy professionals could meet people without having to go through the hassle and stress of actually meeting people. In today's hyper-connected age of chaos, though, even browsing through profiles and clicking a mouse is too much to ask of an online citizen weaned on a culture of convenience, or a high-level professional tethered to a BlackBerry. So that's where online dating assistants come in.

Whether they're too tied up at the office, too embarrassed of their bachelorhood or simply too lazy, more people are enlisting third-party agents to scour singles sites and cherry-pick potential matches for them. Many firms, like Virtual Dating Assistants in Atlanta, even go so far as to compose user profiles, send e-mails to potential love interests and engage in correspondence until a first date is agreed upon -- usually, for a fee of around $5,000. After that, it's up to the client to go out and bring home the gold, even though the selected date may never know of the people who pulled the strings to make it happen.

Although most services consult with their clients while constructing profiles and sending e-mails, some critics view the practice as dishonest. Jared Gordon, the editor of the dating blog 'A Bad Case of the Dates,' equates it to having someone else write your college term paper, or publishing false photos of yourself online. "You're going to fall in love with someone because of their honesty," Gordon explains to the Washington Post. "And some people might say, 'Who has the time to write a profile?' But if something is that important to you, you make the time to do it."

While many of the clients interviewed insist that online matchmakers satisfy an increasingly significant need for professional singles, it's hard to find fault with Gordon's reasoning. We understand that people may be too busy to actually meet people, and that some may feel more confident leaving the ordeal in the hands of so-called professionals. But is this really the best way to kick off a relationship? It may be more socially acceptable than we know, but it still sounds an awful lot like the beginning to a bad romantic comedy of the Freddie Prinze, Jr. variety. [From: WashingtonPost]

Tags: dating, matchmaking, OnlineDating, onlinedatingassistants, OnlineDatingServices, romance, singles, socialnetworking, top, web