Can Mobile Dating help Online Dating loose its unwanted "decorations"?

Online dating may be extremely good at giving you a lot of information about other people before you meet them in person.

But until you actually meet up, how can you know if they "decorated" their profile (with a 10-year old photo, for example) or if you will have any real "chemistry" between you?

Can mobile dating really help us solve this problem?

Chemistry? Now where have I heard that one before?

I first observed this problem a few years ago. Whenever I popped round to see my friend Nick, he'd be in an online chat room, searching for someone he could build a relationship with.

Nick was not happy with internet dating. He'd had his first date with someone he'd met online. It wasn't that she was unattractive, he explained, he just found there wasn't any chemistry between them.

Decorating our online friends in our imagination

I wondered about this for some time, and my personal theory is that our primitive brains simply have not kept up with technology. In fact, we are such visual creatures that, according to scientists, about half of our brains are dedicated to processing visual information. Evolution has obviously wired us to expect to see the people we are communicating with. So when they are not physically present, I suspect we compensate by filling in the gaps.

Scientists also tell us that the impressions we form, just by looking at people, are surprisingly accurate and long lasting. In one study, psychologists showed university students 7-second video clips of professors teaching. The videos had no sound, but they were asked to rate the professors' personality and skills. Remarkably, their ratings of the professors were almost the same as the ratings given by students who had been in the professor's class all semester.

So until he had seen her in the flesh, how could Nick form an accurate impression?

They had done the usual exchange of information by email, but I suspect he wanted her real-world persona to be like, well ... the person he wanted her to be like. Or maybe it was the other way round and he made her into that person so he could give himself permission to meet her. Whatever. The important thing is that the when they actually met she just wasn't the girl he was expecting.

Our online friends decorating themsleves

But it's not just our psychological make-up that works against us. In the years since Nick's negative encounter, online daters and industry watchers have started complaining about the problem of "decorated" profiles.

Recent research by MIT found that just 1% of daters say they have "less than average" looks, and the weights of women are substantially less than the national average. In another survey, users of a major dating agency said their biggest gripe was fake pictures. I guess when you are competing against millions of other people there's pressure to make yourself stand out.

And it's not hard to see why. The MIT researchers discovered that males who claim incomes in excess of $250,000 have 156% more emails!

Unfortunately, distortions of the truth create unrealistic expectations and lead to disappointment when people eventually meet in the real world.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying online dating doesn't work. I'm just saying that in some cases you will come away from your first date feeling dissatisfied. So is there a solution?

Mobile dating can remove the need for decoration

Well, I agree that Speed dating does a partial job of solving the problem because you get to see real people. But I do have one problem with the concept though - you are forced to talk to everyone at the event. Now, maybe it's just me, but under normal circumstances I tend to be a little bit more discerning than that.

Actually, the only dating service I know that gives you the chance to observe real people, decide who you fancy, and to retain complete control over whether or not you talk to them is Ice Brkr mobile dating.

We've created the concept of a Dating Hot Spot. These are stylish bars, mobile clubbing events, train stations, just about anywhere convenient really, where you know other Ice Brkr mobile daters plan to meet.

Most camera phones have the ability to access our mobile Internet site. So we just send you a text, and with one click you're on our mobile site. Their mobile site shows you photos (yes, on your phone) of all other singles logged on at the very same Dating Hot Spot.

You observe them from a distance (just like you'd normally do). If you see someone you fancy, you simply click on their photo to send them a friendly message.

Ice Brkr delivers your message so you never need to know each other's numbers. If a nice reply comes back, technology stops. You walk over and say hello.