For many people, online dating is a means to an end. A person wants to, say, end up in a long-term relationship. So, he or she goes on a site like 100hookup, dates any number of people, truly connects with one, and decides to ultimately cancel his or her account. Success! This is how I would advise people to use online dating.

Then, there are other people who send emails day in and day out trying to see just how many dates they can line up. They know that if Monday’s date doesn’t work out, then Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s are right on the horizon. As a college boyfriend of mine said at the ripe old age of 21, “There’s another bus around the corner.” As you might imagine, that’s not exactly what you want to hear from your significant other.

If you are, in fact, looking for something serious or long-term, then you might want to assess whether you’re simply looking for the best mate for you (A-okay) or whether you’re actually addicted to the process of online dating, getting a bad case of what I like to call “Grass is Greener Syndrome.”

A client of mine recently asked me this question:

“How do I manage two women and then launch of a promising relationship with one of them, while at the same time protecting myself if things don’t work out?

Things with Sherry (name changed) are really going well; we communicate all day and have several dates lined up.  As she wrote, ‘I’m really looking forward to getting to know you to see if we have the basis for a long-term relationship.  So far, so good.’ But there are no guarantees and I’ve been blindsided before.”

This happens all the time. Things are going well with one person, but you want to “protect” yourself in case it doesn’t pan out. How are people protecting themselves these days? They’re doing it with the shield of online dating. This shield provides the comfort that someone else (another bus, if you will) is out there for you should the budding romance not work out.

Many people use this shield as a way of making themselves feel special again simply by logging back on to see the other eligible bachelors or bachelorettes. It makes them keep wondering if there is someone even better out there. It even sometimes makes them unable to recognize a good fit when that person is sitting right across from them at the dinner table. While reactivating your account with one simple click may be great if things don’t work out, it’s also almost too easy to go back on “just to see,” or worse, out of spite.

Online dating is amazing for the options it provides (getting to meet people whose paths you wouldn’t normally cross), but I wouldn’t recommend using these options to the detriment of having a new relationship blossom, which is the goal to begin with! Wouldn’t you want to get off the site and not keep making plans to get back on?

My job is to help people put their best foot forward when online dating, either through working with me individually or through reading my book, but the job is supposed to have an end point—my client meeting someone with whom he or she is compatible. I don’t want you to online date forever! I want you to online date effectively so you can meet wonderful people, one of whom may just be “the one” or exactly what you’re looking for.

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