SXSW: Twitter, Dating, & Douches

The remainder of SXSW was relatively uneventful. The dating bloggers and I never met up. That made me sad, and a little angry, but c'est la vie.

I did get to meet the guy who decided not to have me on his dating panel. It was all about using Twitter for dating, and advice and discussion of that.

After two seconds of entering the panel room I understood why I wasn't on it.

1. He's the biggest douchebag.

2. She was one of those tiny digital prima-donnas.

Ok.. so I'm being judgy.

I just got a little miffed when someone asked for advice on what photo to use to help them increase dating interest. The panel let people in the audience answer and give advice.. but the minute I referenced OkCupid's research on the best photos to use in online dating.. I was interrupted.

It did not matter that I was expressing research on what photos people found the most attractive and approachable.. no no.. I mentioned "online dating".  I was summarily told that this was not "Online Dating", and I was so shocked by the rudeness and obvious "WTF crack are you on" situation that I just sat there with my mouth open and silent for a few minutes as they moved on to someone else.

Dear Douchebag,

Twitter is online. You're discussing dating on it. Thus this is online dating.  Sure sure twitter is not solely purposed as an online dating site, but make no mistake, its online dating.

One of the great things though about using Twitter for dating is that you can get a better sense of what that person is like than you would on an online dating site. On Twitter you get to see how they interact with others. Are they universally friendly? Do they play favorites? Are they childish and block people for silly things? Are they only tweeting at midnight, or is it an all day thing (aka are they an addict)?

Twitter can reveal much more about you than most sites.. but if you're using it to date.. you're doing online dating.

So.. please remove that elitist stick from your rectum. 

Thanks,

Maruska

I did try to introduce myself to him after the panel and say hi.. remind him who I was, etc. He would have none of it, and didn't care to even say hi. I was totally ignored. We're "Friends" on Facebook, WTF? I wasn't expecting a hug and kiss and a huge "we need to catch up" party, but for fuck's sake at least acknowledge that I'm a human being.

So I decided to pester him whenever I saw him the rest of the conference. Seriously, if I saw him, I'd make a point to say hello to him all excited as if we knew each other really well and haven't seen each other in ages. After the first 24 hours, I could tell he was just a little freaked out by it (I was seriously making scenes by yelling his name across the crowded hallways, and he was giving me wide berths). Pretty certain he thought I was some kind of stalker with a crush.  MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

So Monday night rolls around and I head to a party with some local friends. I enter and find my friends and right next to them is Mr Douchebag.  So I turn to one of the guys in my group, and I start sounding off about how much that guy is a douchebag and why. (Mr Douchebag is not from Austin. It was a crowded bar, so I figured it was circumstance that he was there not that he was being social with my group)  My friend turns to me, and says:

"Him?"

"Yes.. the douche who just went up the stairs"

"Oh he's a good guy. I used to work with him."

I wanted to crawl in a hole. I went off about this guy to the only person in my entire circle in Austin who possibly could have known this guy. Great!  Turns out they were pretty good pals.

Funny thing though.. after inserting my foot way far into my mouth.. my friend yelled to the douchebag, who had moved across the room, to say something unrelated to him, and the douchebag then saw that I was friends with his friend.

The entire remainder of SXSW, if I saw Douchebag.. it was he who would smile and say hi to me.

F ' ing Prick.