Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Mike Albo Asks: Did the Internet Make Dating Worse for Gay People?


I understand the nostalgia for the "good old days" of gay life -- we felt so subversive and deviant! -- but I definitely don't miss how difficult it could be to meet potential mates. I can remember basing my entire life around the occasional house party or Toys for Tots benefit thinking it would be the perfect occasion to meet a quality guy, only to strike out and feel like there was no hope ... until the next one. Men are just as hard to read as ever. But online/app dating made it so easy for me to meet a large number of different kinds of guys after my break-up -- and I walked away with a new boyfriend and a(nother) BFF! 

Writer/performer Mike Albo writes: 
For many gay men who remember life before the internet, a nostalgia exists for the days of bars, backrooms, and voicemail, before the rise of internet dating platforms that dominate the way we meet now.  
We remember it as a more visceral and genuine time, and complain about how no one cruises in real life anymore, because we're all constantly looking at our screens. After all, the illicit sexual tension that hangs in the air of a gay bar can't be replicated online and doesn't quite translate to its heterosexual counterpart.  
That said, I sometimes feel grateful that gay dating has gone digital.
Read on HERE.

1 comment:

Steve Reed said...

We romanticize the past, but like you, I remember it being extremely challenging to meet guys with similar goals before the digital era. Vive le Internet!