Dating 101: Playing favourites

There are a variety of ways to show someone that you’re interested in them on an online dating site. Some sites allow you to ‘wink’ at the object of your affection, while others allow you to ‘star’ them or ‘add them as a favourite’, which has given rise to a new, dreadful verb: to favourite.

Winking, for me, is a cop-out. It doesn’t say that you’re flirtatious, it says — nay, SCREAMS — ‘I’m not a paid subscriber and this is the only way I can register my interest in you without shelling out some of my cash’. How epic. How romantic.

Favouriting is similar, but doesn’t immediately give away whether you’re a paid-up member or not. Selecting favourites can be a tricky business. Here are some oh-so-handy dos and don’ts:

DO be discerning. Go for people you actually like the sound AND look of.

DON’T just favourite someone because they’re hot.

DON’T just favourite someone because they’ve done it to you.

DO read their profile to make sure that you have all the attributes they’re looking for.

And most importantly:

DON’T add favourites when you’re drunk. This will come back to haunt you when some friendless ugger reciprocates your drunken momentary lapse in judgement.

If you favourite willy-nilly, you run the risk of a) getting more attention than you can handle and b) becoming suicidal when even the ugliest of mingers doesn’t reciprocate your favouritism.