5 alternative ways of using the Net to meet people

October 2nd, 2009

Online dating sites are certainly the most direct way of meeting other singles online, but as much as online dating professionals hate to admit it, they are not for everyone. If you’ve given online dating a good try and have decided it’s not for you after all, then it’s time for a bit of lateral thinking. You can still use the Net to meet new people, for both friendship and romance. It may not be as direct as going on a dating site, but for many people, that is actually somewhat of an advantage.

Going out there and meeting people is the best thing you can do if you want to get yourself a shiny new relationship. So think of this as a way of making your social schedule busier and getting you out and about. You go out, you meet people, you meet their friends and their friends and so on and who knows where that might lead?

Now, I’m not suggesting you go out there and plaster an equivalent of your dating profile on every communications medium you find, but if you want to recreate the more “natural” way of coming across the right people in the virtual universe, then you’re in luck.

The Internet is full of alternative ways of expanding your social circle. Here are 5 of them:

1. Social networking sites

These make for the obvious choice for many people and range from the big sites like Facebook and Myspace to more interest-specific sites, as well as those sites specifically geared towards meeting up in the real world (like meetup.com).
At first, the online dating industry was worried these free socialising sites would take over and put all dating sites out of business, but this never happened and dating sites retained their appeal.
But while it’s true that the majority of people use sites like Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family, rather than date, these sites are still worth a go.
On Facebook, there are quite a few dating applications that let you use the site as a dating site (Zoosk, for example). Also, using such sites to expand your social circle, find out about meet ups and events and meet exciting new friends-of-friends can be very useful indeed. Try searching for your interests/hobbies and looking in the “groups” and “events” sections to see what’s around.
If you are already signed up to a social dating site, it won’t hurt to set your status to “single” and check out some of the dating applications available. You don’t have to turn your Facebook profile into a dating profile to make use of them, either.

2. Forums

If you’re interested in finding someone who shares your interests, you could do worse than joining and participating in a few forums related to your hobbies and interests. Sure, it’s not a dating site, so there’s no guarantees people there are single, but it’s a good way to meet new people and get out of the house occasionally. Local forums are better for this purpose, of course, so you can have a chance of participating in a monthly meet up without having to buy a plane ticket.

3. Mailing lists

Similarly to forums, these are a good way of connecting with like-minded people online. Usually, there are list-related meet ups and events and depending on the list you’re on they can be regular. Plenty of Yahoo and Google groups exist as a cross between a mailing list and a forum.

4. Communities and interest pages

Searching the Web for “[insert your interest/hobby here] meetup” (or meet or any related terms) could bring some results, as well as scouring the pages of sites like craigslist.org or gumtree.com for local events (or organising your own). There are many groups that meet up once a week/month/whenever that may have their own page up but are a bit behind on joining the social media revolution, so may not appear on social networking sites just yet.

5. Online gaming

Although mutli-player gaming is often a lonely, couch-bound activity, I know of a few people who met and fell in love while playing online games. If gaming is your thing, maybe it’s time to make a bit more effort to get to know the people you’re playing with. Beware of hairy bikers pretending to be nubile young women, though, unless you’re into hairy bikers).

What other methods have you used online that were helpful to you? Were there any you tried that were unhelpful?

Related posts:

1. Is online dating killing romance? Going beyond dating sites
2. How soon should you meet up?
3. Dating – don’t just keep it online
4. What we can learn from social networking sites
5. Is running a search on someone you met online a good idea?

Entry Filed under: Online Dating Tips