Another week and news of another dating site giving itself a gimmicky focus hits the deck. There’s something about taking the open opportunities and free access of a dating and finding ways to narrow it again that somehow seems to chime with the wider public.
Rather than putting your interests in your profile as something that can inform people’s expectations of you, some sites instead invite you to highlight an aspect that you then hang your own personality off instead. In years gone by we’ve had sites targeted at the super-rich or who make a big song and dance about vetting the attractiveness of their prospective members.
It’s an attempt to appeal to the snob in us and make us believe we’re some kind of elite if we get accepted into their hallowed halls. These sites work much the same way as school cliques, where we used to worry about being accepted into them without taking a moment to consider if they were actually groups of people we really needed to be around.
This week it’s the turn of dog-owners to feel the love, with YouMustLoveDogsDating.com launching in Florida with a limited free trial for a couple of days at the beginning of May. The owners of the service say that dog owners can sometimes find it difficult to find other people who adore their dogs as much as they do, which is why they have chosen to try and fill this particular niche.
Their unique selling point, as they see it, is that there is – in addition to the usual features – a place for site owners to share information about the number and type of dogs they own.
Or as we like to call it: your profile.
We appreciate our pets as much as anyone else, and can certainly see the appeal of filtering people a little in this way – but isn’t part of the search for companionship and love the joy of meeting people with different interests and hobbies? Choosing who to date on the basis of their pets isn’t the weirdest criteria we’ve ever encountered, but it does seem to narrow your choices and opportunities for having new experiences.
If you adore your pets, then talk about them, sure, but don’t forget that you’re looking for some human companionship too.