I have something to admit. I have been a subscriber of eHarmony off and on for a while now. It’s something that I try out every once and a while, especially since I have two friends and some friends of friends who have found the “one” through their matching service. But I have never been too successful there. I have found a couple of friends that I keep in touch with, but no one that moved beyond that.
If you are unfamiliar with the eHarmony, it’s an online matching service. It’s not really a dating service, although it is often thrown in there with the others. How it works is that you answer a bunch of questions that together create your profile. The eHarmony computers then use the information they gathered from you to see if they think you would be compatible with any of the people they have in their system. They espouse that there are 29 different dimensions that they match on. You can also set your parameters in terms of age, location, and other kinds of demographic data. If you “match” with someone then you both get a notification by email to sign into the system and begin the process of getting to know each other. This is a multi-step process. It begins with you getting to read some of the information in their profile. If you decide to move to the next stage you can send 4 multiple choice questions. The next stage is sharing your non-negotiables which they call “must haves” and “can’t stands”. From there you can send three opened ended questions kind of like essay questions on an exam. Finally, if you get all the way through you can opt to enter “open communication” and send messages through the eHarmony server directly to the other person. This allows you to communicate openly, but without sharing your personal contact information. From there you can decide to share your personal contact information (or not) at your leisure or when you feel comfortable.
Every so often, as a marketing ploy, eHarmony offers a free communication weekend where you can sign in and check out your matches without having to pay…hence the free part. This weekend was one of those weekends. As I canceled my account a while ago when trying to cut back on expenses, I decided I would check in and see what matches were there. And alas…nothing too exciting. I will keep you updated in case I decide to actually subscribe again. I think I may have found a way to make it less expensive. And I will update you on that, too, if it works!
For now, here’s to a new year and more fun being single and me!!!
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