Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Make me a match,
Find me a find,
catch me a catch
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Look through your book,
And make me a perfect match
I've never had that "perfect match." Not that I'm complaining. Much. I often wonder what it would be like to be in love. I've loved, but never been in love. With Valentine's Day, my thoughts turn to that topic once again.
Matchmaking as a profession has been around for millenia. The role of a matchmaker varies from culture to culture and from era to era. The past few years has found a resurgence in the demand for the services of personal matchmakers here in America. But the internet has had the biggest impact on the search for Mr. or Ms. Right.
There are sites that charge for their services like Zoosk, eHarmony.com and Match.com. There are sites that offer their services for free--on a limited basis--such as okcupid.com and matchmaker.com. Some of the sites that charge are very expensive, while others are more reasonable. The limitations on the "free" part of their services also varies. Some charge you just to sign up, while others don't charge until you want to make contact with someone. And most sites offer discounts for longer term subscriptions.
There are sites for "mature" singles (what does that mean, exactly?) like maturesinglesonly.com and sites for Christians like christianmingle.com. There are sites that cater specifically to blacks, gays, Asians, Jews, interracial and international groups, just to name a few.
At this time of year, all these sites are advertising all over the web. I don't particularly pay much attention to each ad (I see a lot of them on Facebook). But a week or so ago, an ad caught my eye:
I was immediately intrigued! And that's not the only one! There's singlecatlovers.com, PURRsonals.com and catloverdating.com--just to name a few. Well, that got me thinking. I know, I know, a dangerous thing. What if, I thought, there are dating sites for writers and bibliophiles?
Well, a couple of Google searches later and I found bookwormsdating.singlescrowd.com and alikewise.com, for two. For writers? Writerspassions.com. Bipolar? Nolongerlonely.com. Caregivers?
Caregivers? Umm, no. I found a few articles about dating when you're a caregiver, but no websites. And, yeah, as one person said, "...just the mention of caring for an elderly parent will send a potential date running."
But, mostly, just like for ethnicity/racial preferences, whatever you're into, there's a site for you. Running, skiiing, philately, woodworking, marijuana (yep)--it's all there.
After all that searching the web, I realized that I would rather talk to a person about my dating preferences. There are still places that do that! Great Expectations is a national matchmaking agency. And there is even a Matchmaking Institute where you can become a licensed, certified matchmaker! Of course, all this costs money. A lot of money in most cases.
So, I guess I'll just stick with blind dates and the chance meeting in a bookstore. Hey, it could happen!
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