For just one second, I'm going to get off of my soapbox and look to a hypothetical example in which someone has bothered to take it slowly, Let's say this is a woman who has partially heeded my advice and has written personalized letters to ten people at once. Four write back. Not a bad percentage. Alas, now she's faced with a quandary, as she now has four men to email, to impress, and to keep track of.
Let's add a wrinkle and say that our fictional woman has just had two quality men write to her as well, so now she has six men on her plate. In such an instance, I would highly recommend (and this goes for members of both sexes) saving email correspondence in a folder named after the website you're on. If you're computer-sawy enough, you may even want to create separate folders for each separate person you email. And there will be a lot of people. Most of them will go by the wayside before you ever meet, so make sure you know how to delete folders before you embark on this crazy Internet journey.
That last thought might strike some readers as somewhat of a surprise "most of them will go by the wayside before you ever meet" doesn't paint a very rosy picture of online dating, does it? Good, because it's rarely, if ever, rosy. Online dating is, at its base, a high-volume medium, which means that if you're emailing six people at once, it's not a bad bet to assume that the six people that you're emailing are also emailing six people at once. Since it's unrealistic to keep that up for very long, we are all forced to make snap judgments based on superficial things in order to thin out the herd.
I wouldn't correspond with any woman who didn't put in the same effort that I put into my emails. If I take the time to write a series of funny and provocative questions, I expect some answers or at least some commentary on what I've said in return. But when all I get is something like, "Cool. What kind of music do you like?" I'm done. You gotta draw the line somewhere, and the lack of thought put into such a response is indicative of one of three things: i) she's boring, 2) she's not that into me, or 3) she's talking to five other guys. Either way, i don't have the patience to continue to make an effort with ,if woman
doesn't see the need to make an effort with me; certainly not when there are five other women who are, at least, temporarily interested in me.
This is, admittedly, an extreme stance, developed over four years of online dating experience. And there are plenty of people who don't enjoy the titillating thrill of email the way I do. They would prefer to hop directly to the phone after a very brief exchange. To those people, I would advocate giving people a few emails to prove themselves, rather than cutting them off as quickly as I do. Overall, however, if you write a lot and get little in return, it may just be a glimpse of the relationship to come. And no one wants to be part of a couple where you put in far more than you receive.
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