Back when Internet Dating was a Blast

It wasn't always this bad.

Internet dating is a mess, isn't it? Swiping presumes that we're all ultimately superficial and want everything to be a game, even when it comes to a very significant decision, such as finding a partner. My 32-year-old son recently told me there's a backlash amongst younger generations in trusting any dating apps to deliver. For older generations, most of my female friends have given up. Endless pictures of men wearing sunglasses, too-tight lycra cycling shorts or appearing as if they're staring into the bathroom mirror, having just woken up, can do that to a gal.

I started to lie about my age in my late fifties when I realised that, at 63, all I could view on the sites was endless tumbleweed or the familiar message, "There's nobody here for you right now; try back later."

However, it wasn't always like this; I tell my friends about when I first went online in 1999, out of curiosity, on a now-defunct site called Nerve.com. Those early years of online dating were what I still refer to as the golden days. Back then, when we were all still on dial-up. Nerve's personals felt like the epitome of cool, and so did the site itself.