15+ Stories Proving That Online Dating Doesn’t Always End with “Happily Ever After”

According to statistics, 53% of people using dating apps lie on their profiles. Sometimes people use old photos where they are younger and more fit, or lie about their jobs, trying to look more successful. And sometimes, our over-the-top expectations ruin our experience when we meet the real person.

We at CHEERY are sure that today, the internet can help many people find a soulmate. But at the same time, we should always remember that online dating can turn out very unexpectedly.

• “Dated a guy for a month I met online. He had no social media. Then I found out his sister’s name, looked her up, and found he was married with 2 children. Stayed off online dating ever since.” © sleepy0kami / Reddit
• “His dating profile spoke about how he’d been dedicated to the gym recently and hoped who ever he dated was into a healthy lifestyle. He was about 5′6 and 300 pounds, wearing a T-shirt and shorts with suspenders. I dig bigger guys, just be honest about who you are.” © Kelly Greene / Quora

• “Met a girl who described herself as a 24-year-old woman who’s blonde. I arrived at the date, all happy, but realized that the girl who sat was a 40-year-old lady with 2 children and was just finding an excuse to leave her house.” © SiddharthGrover / Reddit
• “A guy told me ’Those pictures were a couple of years old,’ when he showed up with hair as gray as mine and pictures showing full brunette. It took more than ’a couple of years’ for my hair to get that gray.” © Karen Tiede / Quora
• “Girl sends a one-word message, ’Hi.’ Ok, it’s not easy starting a conversation, so no problem. I reply with a medium length message: I comment about some interesting hobby mentioned in her profile and ask for more details, I tell her about my day, some other random stuff. Overall, a good effort. The next day, she replies: ’Hi, how are you?’ She was pretty.” © TheRealMogman / Reddit

• “I worked at a river rafting company for a few years. I saw a woman with a picture on my raft, I can see my shoes in the background. I asked her about her rafting trip and if she went often. Her reply was along the lines of ’Uh, yeah, I go all the time, that’s where I work.’ So I asked her if she meant just on that river or that specific company. ’No, I work for that one. Why are you so worried about where I work? You need me to support you?!’ So I explained that, it was my raft she was in and that I hadn’t remembered her on my raft or otherwise working there. Then she called me creepy, and I never heard from her again.” © itsyaboyObama / Reddit
• “The biggest red flag I ever saw on a profile was when a friend of mine showed me some of the women on there, and one of them was my wife.” © Judoka229 / Reddit
• “We met online, he seemed cool and funny, we went out a few times. A few weeks in, he told me I was almost perfect, except my upper arms were fat. I think he meant it as a compliment, but the 2nd part was all I heard. It was the specificity that made it seem exceptionally cruel.” © jacqattaq / Reddit

• “I had spoken to a guy via an app for a few weeks when he asked me on a date. We seemed to be getting on really well, so we decided to grab coffee. His idea of a great first date was to bring his own coffee in a thermos flask and for us to sit in the city bus station. There wasn’t a second date.” © TheTriumphantPanda / Reddit
• “The couple beside me in the restaurant are on a blind date; they both love dogs, sushi, and looking at Tinder while the other one is in the restroom.” © MattOswaltVA / Reddit
• “I matched a girl who looked really cool and complimented her hair. She responded with something along the lines of ’I’m so glad you messaged me, most of these guys just match and never message.’ I’ve seen almost exactly the same line before from bots, so I assumed she was a bot and said something snarky about it. She replied, upset, and then unmatched me.” © D_Thought / Reddit

• “Oh man, the first time I contacted someone, I just made fun of a band she said she liked. I wrote something like, ’My only problem is that you are into (band).’ She replied (as she should have), ’My only problem is that the only thing you offer is a criticism.’ I still cringe.” © dinnersateight / Reddit
• “My worst date. We were to meet at a local coffee shop and once I got there. The man was way older and heavier than his profile picture. So I thought about just leaving, but got caught by the date. So I sat it out a bit, but this man was nasty-minded and rude and smelled of body odor. I sat about 15 minutes and then grabbed my things and excused myself to the lady’s restroom, where I instead just left the coffee shop.” © Michelle Greenleaf / Quora
• “I tried Tinder for a while. After a month or so I contacted and was talking with this girl and things seemed to be going well. We had similar interests in music and movies, similar sense of humor, etc. Eventually we were talking about hobbies and I casually mentioned I played Magic the Gathering. IMMEDIATELY UNLIKED. Like, she had time to receive the message, click the menu and hit unlike. That was fast.” © tontokowalskie / Reddit

• “Zero matches the whole time I’ve been on Tinder. I saw my ex there, and in her profile she basically described she was looking for a guy exactly like me, just not me. So I’d say my experience was pretty awful. I don’t think online dating is really what it’s cracked up to be. It allows people to be even more shallow than in person.” © Skramer94 / Reddit
• “I met with this very attractive woman on a dating app. She was way hotter than me. At some point during the evening, she leans forward on her bar stool, narrows her eyes and goes, ’I know there was some reason I swiped right on you.’ Because at this point she could not remember.” © ThatsASaabStory / Reddit

Have you had any experience with online dating? Was it good?