We’ve seen the adverts; young girl at a train station, cute guy opposite. He starts strumming her a love song. Bish bash bosh. And most recently there’s the pretty scottish young woman, mid-late 20’s talking about how her friends are all settled down now, some serious, others casual and how she wants to fall in love again. Good for her. We then watch as she gets ready and meets her hot date at a cafe/bar and they hit it off immediatley. Even though the advert states it is real, I still have my suspicions so I decided to do a little research of my own. Are the adverts misleading?

Match.com member sign up:’ I am woman looking for a man aged between 21-30′. Simple enough. Then we get onto the subscription. Bear in mind the advert seems to aiming towards a younger audience: 1 month membership – £29.99, 3 month  membership – £59.97 (£19.99 a month) and 6 month Match membership – £77.94 (£12.99 a month)* all of which you are expected to pay in bulk. How many young women would like to part with so much cash just to have a few dates with a guy who will more than likely turn out to be like all the others. Young women have rent and bills to pay and social lives to lead. I avoided this website simply for this reason. Through research I have found it to be the most successful typically for women/males in their 30’s, not women in their 20’s like the advert suggests.

For a similar reason I avoided e-harmony. Like Match it makes out like we’re getting a great deal by parting with over a £100 to join their site. For 12 months it’s a ‘one-off’ bill of £119 and 6 months it’s£89.

So I joined a free dating site and within an hour I wished I hadn’t. Few had made the effort to read my short but sweet profile but the majority had obviously copy and pasted the message to every other woman on the site. ‘Elo Bab, ows u xx’ from CheekyDan69 (yes, a real username). BigBoi101 also made me laugh. Another message was also pretty much telling me not to break his heart because his last girlfriend did. WOAH. Excuse me? When I asked a few why they had joined I had the same response ‘to find a girlfriend’ ‘for some fun’ and ‘because it’s free’. Most of the men who had expressed interest were around their mid-twenties

It makes me wonder whether the better bunch are on the sites you pay for, I mean my own mom met her boyfriend on a dating site. My aunt has had successful dates through dating sites but they are both in their 4o’s. Through research I haven’t found one succesful story with both being in their mid-late 20’s. So to conclude, no dating sites are not worth it. Not from my experience. Not for young women unless they want to spend their hard earned cash and their evenings trawling though the same messages from the same type of guy. I’ll just be normal and meet somebody through friends. Although I find normal boring, at least you know where you stand with normal. Normal is like that old friend that’s always there for you. Spontaneuity is his crazy cousin who appears when you least expect it and usually only to everyone else. Normal ftw. Hbu?

*prices correct as of June 2012