Fair elections: Is it possible to find happiness on a dating site
Text: Sonya Margulis
My school friend O. lives in Sweden. In the last 10 years, we have met once, but we often correspond with each other, and our dialogues almost literally repeat the notes that we exchanged 16 years ago in geometry lessons. Recently, O. said that she broke up with her young man, registered on a dating site and met Daniel, a baker from Israel who temporarily lives in Sweden. O. - a man advanced and broad-minded (no wonder he lives abroad). My Moscow friends always treated dating sites like a different planet - and it’s not clear what was more in this respect: snobbery or horror. From acquaintances such an experience was only the sister of one friend of another friend (she even married a man from the Internet - however, soon divorced) and a cosmetologist Lyudmila, who, tearing off strips of hot wax from my leg, tells stories from life in Internet (one worse than the other). But a few days after my correspondence with O., I saw a link to an interview with a man who had invented one of the most popular dating services, and somehow I entered it myself. The bottom line was this: hang a photo, indicate the name and age, and write what you actually want. All the options that were offered were pretty idiotic: to spend a romantic evening, have hot sex, take a walk under the moon, eat ice cream and so on. Not finding the courage to admit that, in general, I am interested in a walk under the moon, which may well turn into hot sex, I chose the wildest option with ice cream and, adding a photo that best fit the signature "go to hell" , waited.
After about 10 minutes, the notification “three people want to meet with you” appeared in the mail. Their names were: 
Apricot CoT, 32 Nigger Breaking Bad, 32 Bouhessi, 36
The photograph Apricot Cat lying in a bathtub, playing with the muscles, Nigger Breaking Bad was wearing sunglasses and a gold chain around his neck, and Bouhessi - half-naked, and somehow in the cap. But suddenly one of them can make me happy? Suddenly I will love the golden chain and buy the same one? And then, is muscle - is it bad? In general, down with down snobbery.
Soon a few more messages arrived, and then a few more. And more, and more. And then it became clear that the search for a potential lover on the Internet is not the pursuit of happiness, but the hunt - and the hunt, which can last forever. There are a million windows in front of you: you can open each one and look inside, and until you look in, you will not know what is behind the curtain and whether it makes sense to waste time on it. And where is the guarantee that in the next window there will not be something much better? And where is the guarantee that you will not stumble upon some kind of nastiness? There can be no guarantee except for your own intuition and an eyeglass: you are like in the market, and in order to understand who has the most successful pickles here, you need to try everything one by one.
"A new message is waiting for you."
This user had a normal name and a normal photo. He did not make a hundred thousand mistakes and suggested not to strain too much, but to talk like random companions in a train compartment. I liked that. Sometime during the week we corresponded almost every day, and then he offered to meet.
The man from the Internet turned out to be cute: not a midget, not a maniac, not a woman, not a pedophile, or even an idiot
On the appointed day, I was already not well in the morning. What if he has a terrible high voice (Lyudmila says this often happens, so it’s better to talk on the phone in advance)? What if he is a maniac? What if a spy? What if the midget (on the other hand, there is Tyrion Lannister)? In general, not a day, but torture.
The man from the Internet turned out to be cute: not a midget, not a maniac, not a woman, not a pedophile, or even an idiot. After the first boring round (education, work, cultural pastime, etc.), we moved on to the second (unsuccessful marriage, children, age, housing problem, etc.). And then to the third:
Have you been on this site for a long time? - I asked. Already about a year. And often do you meet girls like that? Well, about three times a month for sure. Actually, I want a serious relationship, but all the time something is not right. I understand that I can not stop and I need someone whom I have not yet met (he looked at me searchingly).
And then I understood: pickled cucumber in this case - myself. And it is quite possible that a person from the Internet will decide that salting is not the most successful. Under some absurd pretext, I retreated home, not waiting for the results of the tasting. In general, the next day I deleted my account, but O. moved to Israel: the baker made an offer to her recently.
Illustrations: Masha Shishova