When I started internet dating, in December of 2006, I was embarrassed about it. Why would any self-respecting 22-year-old, after all, want to wade through a virtual pool of creeps and weirdos? I would talk about it in a jokey tone, as if I were only after the avant-garde experience. And that was part of the appeal. But thinking back on it now, my online search for love was far more earnest than I ever admitted to my friends or to myself.

The NYC bar scene (like most bar scenes, right?) is not a great place to spark a serious relationship. I’d meet someone and know immediately whether we had chemistry; I could see how a guy dressed, talked, smiled, maybe