Are You Addicted To Online Dating?

[caption id="attachment_830231" align="alignleft" width="1068"] Bigstockphoto.com/african american student studying computer in the park[/caption] Online dating has helped a tremendous amount of people find their partner for life. It’s connected people who would have otherwise never met because their lifestyles and habits would have never put them in the same place. It’s definitely a wonderful tool and very convenient. But what happens when something is convenient? Like fast food restaurants or energy drinks? We can become addicted to it. When you know that online dating is always there, 24 hours a day, just a few clicks away, you can develop a compulsive need to check every single new message and scroll threw any potential new matches. Online dating can become something you need to do more than something you want to do. And that takes the fun out of finding your person. Are you addicted to online dating? Here are the signs. [caption id="attachment_712971" align="alignleft" width="413"] Shutterstock[/caption]

It’s affecting your work

Your boss is wondering why tasks are taking you so long. It’s because you pause every twenty minutes to re-check your online dating messages.           [caption id="attachment_702748" align="alignleft" width="420"] Shutterstock[/caption]

You panic if your phone dies

You panic if your phone dies while you’re out with friends because you cannot check your messages. You’ll climb over the bar to charge your phone and bother the bartender every thirty minutes to hand it to you so you can check your messages.         [caption id="attachment_693399" align="alignleft" width="420"] Shutterstock[/caption]

You’ve done it while on a real date

You have checked your online dating messages while you were on a real date. In fact, you’ve been caught doing it.             [caption id="attachment_701338" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

It’s keeping you awake

You stay awake at night obsessing over how you worded that last message, reading and re-reading your profile and every conversation you’ve had online with your current interests.             [caption id="attachment_697920" align="alignleft" width="468"] Shutterstock[/caption]

You’re spending too much money on it

Between the several paid sites you’re signed up for, you spend over a thousand dollars a year on online dating. You meant to put that in your Roth IRA.           [caption id="attachment_701571" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

People say you’re tuned out

Your friends and family have been complaining that you haven’t been paying attention when they’re talking to you and that your nose is always in your phone.           [caption id="attachment_701091" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You’re always taking new profile pictures

Anytime you have good lighting you stage a photo shoot to try to find that perfect new profile photo. You’ll sneak out of a church service or friend’s wedding to do it.         [caption id="attachment_609469" align="alignleft" width="378"] Shutterstock[/caption]

You’ve had everyone critique your profile

You’ve had everyone in your life look over and critique your profile. You have detailed questions you ask them about each part, almost like a survey.               [caption id="attachment_614056" align="alignleft" width="420"] Corbis Images[/caption]

You move on very quickly

Since you know there could always be someone better just a click away, you move on from one guy the second you read something you don’t like. You don’t even ask him to explain himself.         [caption id="attachment_717702" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

“Online dating” is one of your interests

You spend so much time online dating that you’ve stopped doing much else. So you don’t exactly have other hobbies and interests to list on the hobbies and interests portion of your profile.         [caption id="attachment_693926" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Real dates make you nervous

You are a queen in the online realm. You crush it at flirting through messages. But if someone asks you out on a real date, it kind of ruins the magic for you.           [caption id="attachment_717697" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You’re always brainstorming for your profile

You keep a journal of cute, funny things to say in your profile, or interesting stories to tell potential love interests online. You’re constantly curating information for your online presence.         [caption id="attachment_620944" align="alignleft" width="500"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You’re sad if you don’t have messages

You can become genuinely depressed if you don’t have messages for a day. You’ll skip your workout, forget to eat (or overeat) and feel hopeless when that inbox is empty. [caption id="attachment_714951" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You’re starting to confuse guys

You are talking to so many guys you can’t remember which one rides horses and which one works at the tech startup. You’ve confused several of them and they’ve had to correct you.           [caption id="attachment_608776" align="alignleft" width="378"] Shutterstock[/caption]

You have all the notifications set up

You’ve set up every online dating site to send you notifications to your work and personal email, your cell phone, your tablet—you name it. You can’t fathom the possibility of missing a notification of a new message.           [caption id="attachment_714451" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You’ve seen everyone online now

You accidentally start talking to someone you already spoke to months ago. You have officially made the rounds of everybody on every site.         [caption id="attachment_714445" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You check your messages in the middle of the night

If you get up to pee in the middle of the night, you check your messages. You have dreams about online dating, and these dreams wake you up, so you check your messages.         [caption id="attachment_717721" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You online date instead of socializing

You’ve passed up on social plans in favor of staying home and chatting with guys online. You’ve even left your good friend’s birthday party early to go chat with guys online.         [caption id="attachment_713803" align="alignleft" width="420"] Shutterstock[/caption]

Correspondence dictates your moods

The way your online conversations are going dictate the way you are feeling. You can be perky and cocky one second and cranky and self-deprecating the next, all over something some guy said online.         [caption id="attachment_695506" align="alignleft" width="420"] Shutterstock[/caption]

You’re lowering your standards

Because you’ve now spoken to every single guy who sparked your interest online, you’re forced to lower your standards. So you have, in fact, started communicating with men posing shirtless on muscle cars.

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