We met ONLINE

Dating for a teenager in the 21^st century is like nothing we imagined. As young girls we have fantasies about being swept off our feet by prince charming. That tall, dark and handsome guy sets his eyes on you and you on his and as he walks towards you, you give him this broad smile and googly eyes that charm him. Then your forever begins.

Can you visualize these events happening in this day and era? Lately, it has become difficult to find a genuine partner. Maybe it’s the rapid advancement in technology or maybe the society is no longer raising men and women of good character.

We also thought love was the most important thing in the world until we met money and sex. Money and sex are ruling our world. We look for love and we bump into someone looking for sex, so we take what we get.

We continue looking to fall in love and find that perfect match but then we bump into money with no love and we settle for that too. The love market seems to have nothing to offer anymore to the single girls and boys.

We have since resorted to digital ways of looking for love. There are several dating sites, and many more are coming up daily. Applications such as Okcupid and Tinder have been popular for dating in the last few years. I joined Tinder at 19 years old. I thought it would be easier to find that prince charming I always dreamt about.

Having watched so many movies, my ideal prince would be a tall, masculine, white guy. Swiping the faces left or right was the best part of the experience. It felt like being in an episode of The Bachelor. Too many options. Men of all shapes, sizes and colours and at first it felt exciting and hopeful.

I had made so many matches by the end of the first day. I felt like the queen B with all these texts flooding into my inbox. What more could a single girl as for? Talking to all these different people and getting to know them online was mind blowing. I had been in the app for just one week and I had been matching so many white men.

However by the beginning of the second week I started to notice that all these men had said they were in the country whereas most of them were not. They were looking to get nudes from me (and perhaps other girls that they were talking to.) Those that were in the country were only just but tourists and surely nothing could become of us.

It is then that I learnt that there is a very low percentage of genuine people in dating. Most of these people are not looking for love but rather have their own hidden agendas.

I thus resign that love will find us whenever because we do not know where to look anymore.

By Bridget Mwiti