It saddens me to think that kids today will never experience AOL chat rooms. The ballin’ screen names, the old school emoticons and the devastating pop-up reading “modem failure”. You’d meet all sorts of new people and it was all fun and games until that three-letter prompt popped up on the screen: A/S/L. This mysterious stranger on the other side of the screen just asked for your age, sex and location. Shit just got real.

So then you go on with this perfect online relationship, chatting all night long, or at least until mom or dad need the phone line. It was heaven! Now-and-days, we don’t have AOL chat rooms or AIM, we have things like Match.com and OkCupid. I can’t quite get into them, they make me uncomfortable, but I started warming up to the idea when I moved to Nashville last January.

Dating in a new city is difficult, especially if you’re looking for something genuine. I may be a minority here, but I’m just not the type to hook up with some guy at a bar. I definitely don’t like the idea of dating someone I work with. Beyond that, there just aren’t many options.

I actually got on Tinder the other day, have you heard of this? It’s terrifying. You get a picture, name and age for people who are close to you. You swipe right if you like, left if you don’t, and if you both swipe right, a chat feature is enabled. I sat there swiping through all of these men, completely creeped out and disgusted with how shallow the whole thing was. Suddenly I realized—this is A/S/L! You get an age, a picture that (usually) indicates their sex, and a location.

Convinced that this had to be designed by a fellow ’90s kid, I gave into the nostalgia and finally built up enough nerve to respond to one. Now I have a confession, the thing that really made me give in was the Harley that was in his profile pic. I’m an absolute sucker for chrome. Shallow, I know, but it’s Tinder.

We did a little chatting and decided to meet up. I was pretty sure he’d end up being a serial killer or a complete douche. I was a little taken aback when he turned out to be normal and attractive and it made me nervous so naturally, I drank too much. Folks, the man had to drive me home. It was embarrassing.

We went on a few more dates, but it fizzled out fairly quickly. Don’t worry, I wasn’t too heartbroken. I knew it wouldn’t last long after the first date. Not because of my embarrassing behavior, but because he actually said “I like flat, tasteless beer”. See I love craft beer, it’s a part of who I am. If a man can’t appreciate the quality of a silky, smooth full-bodied beer, he sure as he’ll can’t appreciate me.

While I enjoyed my ’90s flashback, I decided to delete Tinder. Nashville’s a big city, I’m bound to bump into an attractive man on occasion. Until then, I’ll sip my stout and stick to dating the old fashioned way.

What’s your best online/app dating story? Share in the comments below.

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Rachel Figley

Latest posts by Rachel Figley (see all)

• 24/F/Nashville: Post-College Dating Life For The AOL Generation - December 26, 2013
• Finding A New Home For The Holidays - December 24, 2013