Lauren Urasek, 25, "the most popular heterosexual on OKCupid" according to the dating site, has a new book out, Popular: The Ups and Downs of Online Dating from the Most Popular Girl in New York City. As you might imagine, Urasek's got lot of fun, funny, and horrifying stories to tell, of guys who went for a kiss ten minutes into the first date, outright offered her cash for sex, and interviewed her as if being girlfriend was a job she had applied for. From an interview in The Daily Dot:
Let's talk strategy: What makes you most likely to respond to a guy from an online dating site?
As long as you're not writing a really horrible message, it's really about your pictures and your profile, whatever you say. If I'm attracted to you and you don't come across like an idiot, then I'll respond to you. It seems so simple, but it's really not.
I always find it very weird that you can always tell a lot about someone from one picture, or the type of hat that they're wearing, or the way their facial hair is—if it's messy or really clean cut, what does that say? And I don't care how attractive you are, shirtless pictures are an automatic turn-off.
I keep hearing this thing about guys posing for pictures with tigers. Is that a thing that you've seen?
Yeah. Girls do it, too. Posing for pictures with, like, exotic animals, and in front of national landmarks and wonders of the world. Like Machu Picchu. There's like 5,000 people in front of Machu Picchu on OkCupid, I swear. (laughs) It's a really weird thing….
People get frustrated with online dating pretty quickly. What do you think has kept you optimistic about it?
I mean, I'm pessimistic about the human population in general. (laughs) So I don't see online dating as a different space. It;s just part of our community and our world. So the same people that are walking on the street are the same people that are on online dating. There's good people online, just like there's good people in person.
It's not like everyone online is bad—'cause the people that are online are me, and probably this girl over there. I met my ex-boyfriend online—he was a great guy—and I've met other cool people online. It's definitely frustrating when you see the constant misspellings of words and stupid messages. But you just have to realize that not everyone sucks.
Popular: The Ups and Downs of Online Dating from the Most Popular Girl in New York City (Amazon)
