i've been on eHarmony for 6 days and so far what i find most amusing is the web site. first, there's the choice of advertisements. take, for example, this pairing with a "why isn't there anyone out there for me?" FAQ:
yesterday i noticed that when i go to eharmony.com, it redirects me to the URL www.eharmony.com/return/female:
huh, i thought, i wonder what the guys see? well, this:
there's so clearly a psychologist or sociologist behind this. and i like the 3-to-2 ratio, "you do the math" part. uh, 1.5? or am i missing some subtext here?
for those that don't know anything about eHarmony, there's this notion of "guided communication" where first you ask some canned questions and answer some, then send a list of can't stands/must haves and read theirs (a vacuous step, if you ask me, it's just a long list of near-universal bad and good traits), then ask some open-ended questions and answer some. then you finally get to the point where you can (gasp) send the person a message. from the way they approach it, you would think this communicating-on-the-interweb thing was a new and scary technology:
i read Dr. Warren's message and it amounted to a tutorial on e-mail etiquette and tips for protecting your privacy and security. you have to check a box if you don't want kindly Dr. Warren reminding you how to behave every time you send a message.
anyway, so far i've had canned conversations with some attractive, reasonable-sounding people. we'll see where it goes.
