1 post tagged “camilla long”

Interesting article in The Sunday Times this week about the shameless attempt by a 25 year old girl to bag herself a millionaire using the internet. The important point about the article is the way it highlights the “obsession” with “consumerism” and begs the question of why someone pre-occupied with material wealth is setting their sites on a husband to provide this? Someone should introduce this girl to the writing of Angela Dworkin.

The salient point that the article touches on is that “gold-digging” as a behaviour is by no means new (or indeed just specifc to women see an earlier artile citing an 'ad' from 1779) see an earlier artilebut that websites gave this character a more immediate audience (perhaps more immediate than she imagined in the case of the journalist).

For me this missed an important point and hopefully people do not need to be told that there aren’t a different set of social rules or moral code that apply online when it comes to finding a partner. Clearly dating sites do provide an environment that can avoid some of the initial social awkwardness of ‘talking’ to someone. This is positive in most cases such as enabling that first “hello” and initial conversation that we all know isn’t always easy. Or in the negative extreme case above, where doubtless this public declaration is made easier by the partial anonymity of the web. That said, it is not the case there is necessarily a different morality (or lack of it) that exists on the web when it comes to online dating. On dating sites you will find the sort of cross-section of society that exists anywhere else and for the most part Match.com is for people who are serious about finding that significant other.

My point is that if you happen to earn $1m and your proclivity is for money-grabbing glamour models there are (I am told) any number of clubs in Soho where you could achieve your hearts desire. I am constantly encouraging people to apply the same rules and etiquette to meeting people online as they would in the real world. I for example am in a very happy relationship, however if I was on the site as a 37, balding, short Northerner (actually reading that back its surprising I am in a relationship at all) and I am contacted by “spectacularly beautiful “ 25 year old then using my deductive logic (the same logic that applies in London and Grimsby) it is spectacularly unlikely that this person is interested in me for my physicality and may therefore have an ulterior motive (perhaps my username “millioniarewithhistoryofheartdisease” would draw them in). Clearly you need to use your common sense as, like life,  there are people out there whose intentions aren’t always for the best, however on the flip side there are millions of decent people who are using the technology as an enabler to find that significant other, many with great success.