This is the latest post from our Colorado-based Date Reporter Prescott Reynolds. She’ll be documenting her experience learning to date in a new city — and one that’s a fraction of the size of her former home, NYC. Catch up on her story here. In this post she covers Why Online Dating is Worth Giving a Shot.

You wake up with a dry mouth. Sounds hurt. Light hurts. Your liver, your head, your existence hurt. And you think to yourself, “what the hell is the point of getting this hungover if every single guy in the bar is a movie poster away from being Adam Sandler in Jack&Jill?”

That’s what dating feels like 90% of the time. Maybe less if you’re not a lush like this girl that I’m friends with that’s totally not me. Point is – going to bars feels useless. It’s exhausting. Like it’s going absolutely nowhere ever. Like you might as well get the PetSmart rewards card because the only thing you’ve ever going home to is litter and Lean Cuisine. And whoever suggested meeting someone at the grocery store needs to pony up some cash because I can’t afford to keep speed dating at Whole Foods. That shit is expensive.

Online dating isn’t a fad, it’s part of the cultural shift in communication, and we get to shape it. Our input in this blooming industry influences the way humans will communicate, connect, and if things go really well, copulate.

Knowing what a total drag dating IRL can be, why does it come as such a shock to people to feel the same way when they sign into pleasefortheloveofgodbenormal.com? Welcome to the Internet – Land of Instant Gratification! Thousands of photos of cats at every click! Validation with every Like! And love at the tip of your fingers! What people have misconstrued about online dating is that it’s not supposed to be an insta-fix. It’s supposed to be an option. And a fascinating one at that.

Think back to 1998, to “You’ve Got Mail”, to the days when the concept of meeting someone online was so novel you could actually build a kitschy movie plot around it. In the last 14 years, online dating went from “asl?” to an industry worth millions. It’d be a safe bet to say more Americans could name an online dating website than could name who the vice president is. Online dating isn’t a fad, it’s part of the cultural shift in communication, and we get to shape it. Our input in this blooming industry influences the way humans will communicate, connect, and if things go really well, copulate.

When you sign onto a dating site, it’s still a treasure hunt. When you search for “likes biking, 6’ tall, has dogs,” it’s no different than going to a bar and searching for “taller than me, drinking whiskey, wearing something other than flip flops.” Online dating is just another arena, and one we should feel compelled to participate in. I spend $7 on a dating website every month. That’s about how much I spend on one drink. I drink probably three cocktails every night I go out. I go out three times a week. That’s $252 on meeting guys who are Class 3 river guides “because #YOLO, right?” You’re embarrassing. I understand it’s frustrating to sign on and have JohnnyHugeCock be the only person messaging you, but remember, you could be spending $252 to actually have to speak with this person face-to-face.

The next time someone says online dating doesn’t work, I’m going to ask them to pretty please publish their novella on what does because we would all really like to know. In the meantime, I’m going to spend $7 on maybe, on it’s worth a shot, on you never know, on you won’t believe how we met, on I know it’s weird but it worked, on I saw she loved Mars Attacks! and had to message her, on I don’t know where I’ll find it but I’m not gonna give up ‘til I do… because isn’t that we’re all doing anyway?

Prescott Reynolds just traded in her big city heels for hiking boots and is learning to navigate dating in a small mountain town out west. Karaoke hustler, ad junky, and novice road biker, you can check out her other adventures at DateByNumbers.

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