Chevy and the Status Updates

There's this adorable ad for Chevy running now, where a couple walk up to a door and say good night. The man walks back to his car, turns it on, and tells the electronic system to look up the Facebook status of the girl he was just with. "Best First Date Ever." AAAHHHHH. It's just so cute. It's also sooo dangerous.

Social Media is Dangerous to Dating. One of my favorite readers commented that social media may be part of the reason dating - and follow up dating- has become so complicated. One has to know that his date may very well, through a status update, tell three of his coworkers, his Mom's best friend and two cousins in Norway that they went to Le Bernadin for dinner and he tried to feel her up after the third cocktail.

I tend to reveal very little about my dating life on Facebook (that's what blogs are for!), but what if that were different? What if, like many others, I posted everything about my dating life? What if the girl on the Chevy commercial's Facebook status said, "Tongue darted in and out of mouth like a drunk kimono dragon's - do NOT kiss Jeremy- EVER." Or worse, "He had the passion of a rotting turnip" or "Jessica I'm not speaking to you- how could you set me up with that loser?"

Facebook sets people up for public judging. This is particularly true when one meets their date through the normal mediums- through work or mutual friends. People usually meet when they have something in common, and people with something in common commonly become Facebook friends or follow each other on Twitter. This allows for instant mass communication. A girl doesn't have to call her best friends in the morning- she can tell them- and everyone else she's ever met -exactly how it went in 140 keystrokes or less.

It's so Instant: I was watching "Kitchen Nightmares" (side note- I have an unreasonable attraction to Gordon Ramsey- I know, this indicates some deep-seated psychological problems) - and he was, during the episode, watching the live feed of a food blogger who was at the restaurant re-launch to see if she liked the food. She was sending the message to her 10,000 readers live - and he was watching while cooking. Can you imagine if that were to happen on a date? The guy goes to the bathroom and sees her tweeting about what he was wearing and how his cologne smelled?

I suppose ultimately I'd love the validation of coming off a date only to see the status update of my potential beloved reading, "Miranda Bridget is the coolest chick I've ever met." But since there is always the possibility of getting, "God why did I waste three hours of my life on that drecht?" I guess I'll just not "friend" my dates until long after the first few dates have gone by, because frankly, I don't want to have that much instant feedback- even if his 800 friends do.