The Last Online Dating Step You’re Not Taking & How It’s Hurting You

There may come a time, and hopefully it does, when you want to stop online dating.

Hopefully it’s because you’ve met someone and are ready to move on to the next chapter of your life. Other times, though, you may just need a break.

However, you can be sure you will want to stop online dating at some point.

Many daters make a crucial mistake. They think because they stopped paying for a site or discontinued their membership, this is all they need to do and their history of online dating is gone.

Unfortunately, this is not the case, unless you are diligent in how you use your site and how your site uses you.

The other day while doing some work for a client, I came across a dating profile of another person I knew. This person, while once an active online dater years ago, has since moved on to marry and have two kids.

No, there isn’t anything sinister going on there. The reality is he simply never removed his profile from the online dating site, and this is very common.

But this person also just ran for local office. Suddenly an innocent mistake can take on some pretty scary consequences.

Unfortunately, for many married or attached people, the one thing they fail to do after online dating is to delete or remove their profile from a dating site.

Depending on the site you use, sometimes deactivating your account is not enough, which is what daters don’t realize.

Some sites want as many profiles and users as they can boast. They can lure new daters to use their site when they can point to a large number of singles on their site.

Whether the singles are inactive or active, paid or not paid, is not questioned. They have the profiles to count.

So while your account is inactive, your profile is still very much searchable because online dating sites want it that way. Even years later, your profile can be made to look like you’ve only been absent from the site for a mere matter of weeks (dating sites are tricky like that.)

While you may have unsubscribed from every email list imaginable and never thought about the site again, your account still sits there.

“Make sure you’re diligent when

you decide to stop online dating.”

There are a number of reasons you want to make sure you remove your profile from a site:

If you are no longer single, being on a dating site can damage your reputation.

You know you’re not online dating, but someone else who stumbles on your profile doesn’t. They could start making some awful assumptions, and this could damage your current relationship or reputation.

You never know who will see you and what information they can take away about you. People you work with or for could see your profile and personal information you don’t want widely known.

It’s not that they meant to do this, but if you leave a public profile up, information and photos are there to be found.

Regardless of your relationship status, you want to be in control of what information people can find about you. Leaving an online dating profile unchecked and forgotten leaves you vulnerable to a multitude of unknown future consequences.

Make sure you’re diligent when you decide to stop online dating, and make sure your profile is hidden or deleted before you sign off for good. Have you made sure all of your online dating accounts are deleted?