By By Paul Wallis Feb 14, 2009 in Lifestyle For a world where going to a restaurant and buying a glass of water can induce bankruptcy in consenting adults, virtual dating might be the answer. From one form of unreality to another can’t be that much of a step, until you try virtual dating. You can hold hands, and kiss, too. Five minutes after starting, a “kiss” button emerges from wherever kiss buttons come from. The theory is that you can get to know people. Well, at least you can get to know their avatars. At first glance it looks a bit forced, but realistically, (uh, I mean virtually), it’s a bit less devastatingly kitsch-gruesome than you’d expect. Have to say I’m a bit skeptical about a purple “Flirt” button. I’m reasonably sure that Valentino and Errol Flynn, who learned everything they knew from me, didn’t use purple Flirt buttons. To be fair, with a bit of decent video profile detection and some more software, this could be Second Life meets Mills and Boon. Second Life didn’t start out too flash, either. Omnidate do have a point about one thing. If you bump into someone who’s glued to the Flirt button, and keeps spasmodically hitting everything else, you may not have to go through the whole ordeal of a Date With Doom. (No, there’s no “Kill” button, but I think you can delete everything if you want. Romance is just a click, or several, away. The clientele are interesting, too. There are all ages, all types of people, and some of them are noticeably human, which is a bit of a change from the average dating site, where neither spelling nor plausibility is a real issue. If while browsing profiles you get the impression that the Facebook/MySpace approach to profiles isn’t entirely dead, you’d be right. Everyone’s American, apparently. There are 6 pages of the most recent logins, heading back into the dim mysterious past of last week. The women are interesting, the guys…. Ah, who cares? There are guys, though, somewhere there. Eventually, the idea is that you meet the person. That, methinks, could be the problem. From a virtual paradise to a virtual what, I wonder? Imagine meeting me without all necessary vaccinations, for example. I remember meeting someone and a monastery joined them… self defence, they said... Apparently this meet and mix approach "empowers women". Since practically everything written in the last five years includes this two word vocabulary, I have some reservations about that. Surely a sleaze is a sleaze, however "empowered" you are, and virtual Mace isn't the same thing. On the other hand, the risk factor obviously goes down a lot. Anyway you look at it, this site is getting hits. The clientele are obviously enjoying something. It may be that as the various things making physical dating too expensive and/or gruesome to consider continue to develop, this will be where humanity gathers in spirit, to press buttons. Ummm… “Flirt”… Where’s that cute little Stegosaurus I saw a minute ago…? This is the genteel version of online dating. Omnidate is a case in point. You can have avatars which are approximations of the original humans. You can sail through virtual places which look so nice that if real you wouldn’t dare think about entering, for the peace of mind of your wallet.You can hold hands, and kiss, too. Five minutes after starting, a “kiss” button emerges from wherever kiss buttons come from.The theory is that you can get to know people. Well, at least you can get to know their avatars. At first glance it looks a bit forced, but realistically, (uh, I mean virtually), it’s a bit less devastatingly kitsch-gruesome than you’d expect.Have to say I’m a bit skeptical about a purple “Flirt” button. I’m reasonably sure that Valentino and Errol Flynn, who learned everything they knew from me, didn’t use purple Flirt buttons.To be fair, with a bit of decent video profile detection and some more software, this could be Second Life meets Mills and Boon. Second Life didn’t start out too flash, either.Omnidate do have a point about one thing. If you bump into someone who’s glued to the Flirt button, and keeps spasmodically hitting everything else, you may not have to go through the whole ordeal of a Date With Doom. (No, there’s no “Kill” button, but I think you can delete everything if you want. Romance is just a click, or several, away.The clientele are interesting, too. There are all ages, all types of people, and some of them are noticeably human, which is a bit of a change from the average dating site, where neither spelling nor plausibility is a real issue.If while browsing profiles you get the impression that the Facebook/MySpace approach to profiles isn’t entirely dead, you’d be right. Everyone’s American, apparently. There are 6 pages of the most recent logins, heading back into the dim mysterious past of last week. The women are interesting, the guys…. Ah, who cares? There are guys, though, somewhere there.Eventually, the idea is that you meet the person. That, methinks, could be the problem. From a virtual paradise to a virtual what, I wonder? Imagine meeting me without all necessary vaccinations, for example. I remember meeting someone and a monastery joined them… self defence, they said...Apparently this meet and mix approach "empowers women". Since practically everything written in the last five years includes this two word vocabulary, I have some reservations about that. Surely a sleaze is a sleaze, however "empowered" you are, and virtual Mace isn't the same thing. On the other hand, the risk factor obviously goes down a lot.Anyway you look at it, this site is getting hits. The clientele are obviously enjoying something. It may be that as the various things making physical dating too expensive and/or gruesome to consider continue to develop, this will be where humanity gathers in spirit, to press buttons.Ummm… “Flirt”… Where’s that cute little Stegosaurus I saw a minute ago…? This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com More about Virtual dating, Omnidate, Social websites More news from virtual dating omnidate social websites