Question of the Day: Has online dating reached its peak?

With each new client meeting I have or online dating horror story I hear, seems Internet dating has reached its zenith and lately becoming a concept more eschewed than embraced.  From the men I often hear, "Online dating is just not working for me.  I'm either not seeing much quality out there or the women I do reach out to, don't even bother to respond!" 

Conversely, women seem to complain about the dearth of new faces online and about seeing the same "inventory" of profiles over and over.  I think its also more difficult for single women because there are so many more of them compared to single men, so the competition's fierce!  If they aren't showing photos of themselves taken last week in the Bahamas, weighing no more than 120 pounds, with their long locks flowing in the breeze as they work on their doctoral dissertations, they're not gettin' dates!

Let's face it, when it comes to chemistry or that "je ne sais quoi," the odds of finding it over the Internet are slim to none.  I was recently having this conversation with a new client of mine who was being extremely particular about the "type" of woman he wanted me to set him up with.  When I asked him if he would have ever dated his former serious girlfriend based on an online profile alone, he admitted that he wouldn't.  I asked him why not and he said, "Because based on her picture alone, I would've thought that I wouldn't have been attracted to her.  It was everything about her, including her smarts and business sense, that I really fell in love with."

So, sometimes it goes to show, good ol' fashioned dating (You know, the kind where you're either set up based on commonalities or you meet someone out randomly?) really is where the magic happens!  All I know is, either way, you can't manufacture something on "paper," put it out there for the singles masses to see and expect that, voila, your work is done!  That suddenly you'll hear that familiar "you've got mail" tone and Prince Charming is on the other end offering to sweep you up off your feet.  Would it be nice?  Sure!  But let's get real, when it comes to dating, your best bet is sticking to what's worked for the past generations.  Leave technology to the Bill Gates and Meg Whitmans of the world, put yourself together and get out there in the real-time cosmos!