[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Online Dating, Circa 1985
April 28th, 2008 by Benj Edwards
They put that blue streak there for a reason.
It may seem like online dating is a new thing, but it stretches back farther than you’d think. Case in point: American People/Link, an early dial-up relationship service using Teletext — a much hyped (but little used) online graphical display technology at the time. I’m not sure how successful the service was, but that guy looks pretty happy. If anybody out there ever used People/Link, we’d love to hear from you.
Discussion topic of the week: Have you ever dated someone you met online? Beyond that, how have computer networks changed your social life?
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April 28th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I have had a couple of relationships with girls I’ve met over the internet. Nothing’s wrong with it, and I prefer it to meeting people in a night club, as you get to know them better
My social life is practically organised over facebook now. It’s bad, I know
April 28th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I’m dating a girl right now that I meet through an online service. It cuts through a LOT of BS.
April 28th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I’ve been married for almost seven years to a woman that I met on Yahoo! personals… Does that count?
April 28th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Of course it does, Dave.
I met my wife on Friendster. It would be a great story if the name “Friendster” didn’t sound so darn stupid in retrospect.
“Dad, where did you meet mom?”
“Friendst…I mean, at work.”
April 28th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I used this service a couple of times back then. It was the only service that allowed you to pre-pay time by check. It was basically IRC pre-IRC. It was expensive for a 14 year old boy. Never met anyone though!
April 29th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
From a Babylon 5 IRC chat room, I met a woman from the other side of the US in 1998. Moved her to California in 2000. We married in 2005. We are still happy. Neither of us were looking at the time … we just … CLICKED! (gd&r)
May 1st, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Via match.com I reconnected with a girl I had a crush on in high school (8 years earlier) but was shy to ask out. We’ve been together 5 years, are married and have two kids.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
My first 3 sexual partners I met over BBSes, as a teenager. No pictures were shared beforehand, so it was a true crapshoot. But combine teenage horniness with meeting girls online = fun.