Love in the Time of Chat Rooms

Badoo is an award-winning social networking site that boasts 130 million-plus users. Its founders claim that fifty percent of all conversations lead to off-line meet-ups. This makes sense given that we were bombarded with dozens of messages and invitations to chat, many of them spam, from random people within minutes of creating a profile. If you’re an expat, you’ve probably become accustomed to this fast-and-furious style of connecting with total strangers. Frankly, it made us uncomfortable. With no groups that allow you to find people with similar interests, the Badoo brand of lazy instant messaging led to a lot of lackluster opening lines including, “Do you like sex?” and the ubiquitous “hi there :-)”.

After the splashy Badoo experience, fifteen-year-old Seznamka felt a bit outdated especially when we were asked to supply our astronomical sign. Unlike Badoo, it requires a bit of a vetting process (your photos and ad must be first approved by admin) so at the very least you have time to brace yourself for the onslaught of gentlemen like “Licker1”, who invited us for a dip in his “hydromassage tub.” Without the instant gratification factor of IM-ing, we found that most responses to our ad were polite invitations in both English and Czech to continue corresponding via personal e-mail—though for every one of those there seemed to be a self-described “schizofrenic” lurking in the wings.

Having been bombarded with a mix of the eager (“Hi miss u are very pretty” on Badoo) and the way-too-eager (“Hi there. I study physics. I LOVE YOU” on Seznamka) the fellas over at Štěstí proved a little more difficult to interact with. This time we sent out shy-sounding messages in Czech to a handful of randomly selected suitors. We received no response. Which was surprising, considering that, like Seznamka, Štěstí is based on the set-up-a-profile-and-wait approach. Quite different from Seznamka, however, is a homepage that gives users the opportunity to window-shop, clicking through thumbnail photos of intriguing characters like “OldThyme” from Znojmo. Thumbnails show user’s age and location as well as indicate “TOP” profiles as voted on by other users, though from the looks of the individuals who received that assignation, the criteria is anyone’s guess.

Líbímseti was characterized by photos of young women seductively nibbling cotton candy or posing in bikinis. Atop exercise balls. This site is largely frequented by teenage girls—if you don’t believe me note that the website sponsored its own Miss High School competition in 2011—and as such is an appropriately awkward combo of the hyper-sexed (live masturbation cam) and totally innocent (a “pen-pals only” category). With its massive community of users and focus on casual meet-ups, discussions, forums, and chats, it’s more about entertainment than serious dating. We did, however, receive a handful of replies in English from less-than-lascivious men who seemed genuinely interested in a language exchange.

Lidé, one of the most popular Czech dating sites around, is similar to Badoo and Libimseti for its social network leanings. Here you can discuss “Death/Doom Metal” with fellow heshers or, if you’re in the mood for love, participate in something saucier like the “No Undies Today” chatroom. There’s a YouTube-inspired video-posting page, an events calendar where you can find local happenings (paranormal activities hunt or pajama party at IKEA, anyone?), a high-school reunions section, and, of course, a dedicated dating page. Of all the Czech dating sites, this one was the easiest to use, despite the fact that it’s in Czech, thanks to its incredibly well-organized and straightforward interface.

After my furtive look into the world of Czech dating it was refreshing to return to Expats.cz where what the Personals and Dating section of the Classified pages lacks in panache, it makes up for in, for the most part, decent dudes. And, no, I’m not just schilling for the site. Granted I came across a few desperate types (“WANTED: ANY WOMAN”) and wayward geeks (“I’m an IT guy. It doesn’t have to be disease”) but for the most part, responses to my own ad comprised a healthy microcosm of expat life from a broad swathe of nationalities (“I am an Indian guy with the full flavored spice”), including Czech.

When I first moved to Prague, I went on a few dates courtesy of that social-networking dinosaur, Friendster. Then MySpace (what was it about MySpace that always felt mildly elicit?). Since then we’ve all transitioned to Facebook, which is a different beast altogether—though not expressly for dating, it certainly enables mixing and mingling even if it does effectively kill off the element of intrigue. The best thing that can be said about the sites mentioned here is that most of them hearken back to the slow getting-to-know-you that’s disappearing from our all-access, all-the-time world, while giving you a chance to survey the local dating pool (from a safe distance!) and try out your Czech. Still not convinced? Then let me introduce you to Anetka. And her exercise ball.

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