I was reading an article I came across from the Norwell Mariner on TownOnline. This article was about the hybrid dating service eLove and their opening of an office locally. They say they take the best of online dating and offline matchmaking and put them together. Thus, creating a site where only the most serious of potential mates can be found. At $1500 to sign-up and a reoccurring monthly charge you would have to be serious for sure. But that is not what struck me most in the article.

What struck me was why the people behind eLove started it in the first place. According to Paul Falzone the CEO:

Online dating sites are become diluted by dishonesty, as members of various sites provide information that may not be completely true – they may be legally married, for example – or they’ll post photographs of themselves that are 15 years old.

Is this true? I know that some of this type of stuff happens. Is it really on such a large scale as Falzone implies? Online daters are trying to put their best foot forward in an attempt to entice a potential mate to look their way. But are people really being this dishonest? And if so, why? The bait and switch idea in online dating does not make much sense to me.

Why would you present yourself as something you are not? Once you meet the person you are going to know that the picture was misleading to say the least. Who out there is going to meet someone like this and want to continue seeing him or her? If they would basically lie about something so easy to be shown as false, what else would they fib about?

Most internet daters are basically looking for someone with which to create a life together. At least I am. So if you are tempted to go the dishonest route take a step back and think about what you are doing. Are you looking for someone with some integrity? Would you want to show up to meet someone and find out what they have been telling you is complete bunk? Probably not, so why would you do it to someone else?

No matter how hard it may be for you to put yourself out there. You need to put yourself out there. Your true self, because there is pretty much someone out there for everybody, multiple someone’s in fact. But, how do you expect them to find you, if you are trying to be someone else?