Speed Dating

I know a few guys who truly love the bar scene.  They enjoy going out on Friday and Saturday nights to have a few drinks with their buddies or, failing that, random people, buying girls drinks and grinding with random bodies on the dance floor.  Occasionally these guys bring a girl home, but it usually isn’t for a long lasting or meaningful relationship; they’re usually back at the bar the following weekend.  Though the bar scene may be a good time for some, others see it as a shallow, meaningless way to meet people who tend to get increasingly drunk as the evening goes on.  However, some of these people still end up at the bars on the weekends.  Why?  “Well,” they reply, “where else am I going to meet singles?  I don’t want to date my coworkers, and online dating sort of creeps me out.  I can’t very well just strike up conversations with people on the street.”

Unimpressed with bars, wary of online dating, and tired of blind dates, many people have turned to speed dating as a way to meet new people.  Speed dating nights are usually either hosted by speed dating services or by particular bars or clubs.  They collect a number of singles, often between twenty and forty, and put them into a room together.  The way it works is that the single men and women rotate around the room at timed intervals, usually between three and five minutes.  This way, each of the men meets each of the women and vice-versa, but only for a short period of time.  After each encounter, the singles mark whether or not they enjoyed the encounter on their own private sheet of paper.  At the end of the night these sheets are turned in.  Afterwards, any pairings which both members marked “yes” to be given each others’ contact information, allowing them to get together in the future.

Speed dating is based on the idea that when you meet someone new you usually have established the impressions you give each other within a few minutes, and any exciting chemistry or attraction that may occur between the two of you will be evident within a few minutes as well.  Therefore, if things are going to go well with someone you’ll probably feel it during your mini speed date, but if the two of you really aren’t compatible you only have to spend a few short minutes with each other.  This avoids the awkwardness of failed blind dates or long dinner conversations, while allowing you to meet a lot of new people all at once.  Speed dating may not be for everyone, but many people are finding it a great alternative to other ways of meeting other singles.