Before you go on a date with someone it’s highly likely that you’re going to do some form of due diligence on them. A quick Google search. A glance at their LinkedIn profile or Facebook page. Nothing crazy. You’re not trying to stalk them. Just ascertain, as best you can, whether or not this person that you’ve agreed to go out with is who they say they are. No mere certainty in today’s day and age of chameleons, chatbots, and catfishers.
Between the time spent performing these “background checks”, swiping or searching for dates, and actually corresponding with potential love interests, you may be spending several hours every day in search of true love, time you could be spending doing more important things, like actually living your life.
Realizing the value of saving time and the importance of finding the right person some people turn to matchmaking services that do the heavy lifting for them, screening and vetting the bachelors that want to use their service. But this is an expensive proposition usually running in the thousands of dollars. A luxury that most aspiring Romeos and Juliets can’t afford.
What I’d like to propose then is the creation of an abbreviated matchmaking service. One that handles all of the tedium involved with online dating without performing any actual matchmaking. More so a Private Eye detective service than an actual Fiddler on the Roof, this service would charge a nominal fee, say $10 a month, to handle all of the online investigating you’d want to do on potential soulmates. Scouring the deep recesses of the Internet for blog posts, message board comments, inappropriate tweets, arrest records, Pinterest boards, and any other digital breadcrumbs that may exist. Anything that may help you make an informed decision.
You could even specify what it is that you want the service to investigate. Perhaps it’s conducting digital analysis of profile photographs to find out if they’ve been photo-shopped or altered in any way. Or maybe the investigation is more centered on a person’s back story. Do they really come from Ukrainian royalty like they claim?! Are they really a retired Air Force pilot who now spends their free time in Napa Valley while dabbling in venture capitalism? If it really does seem good to be true, is it?
Since we’d be providing an extra “layer” of protection for people I’d name this service LAYAR, which would be an acronym for “Look, Are You A Robot?” – which is sadly now the #1 question that people ask on dating apps. Or at least I assume that to be the case based on personal experience.
Now this service wouldn’t be the end all be all. Most people are still going to want to do a little bit of sleuthing on their own, being careful not to accidentally deep like any old pictures on Instagram along the way. But at the same time I think the idea has merit. After all, wouldn’t you be willing to spend a little bit of money now for a life-time of peace of mind?
Is LAYAR the Greatest Idea Ever?
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