I did something that I never thought I would ever do – I joined an online dating service. I figure if I am going to perform ethnographic research on Jewish internet users, JDate would be the place to go. JDate was started in 1997, is aimed at Jewish singles, and now has more than 450,000 members. When signing up, along with the typical questions about age and location, they ask you a bunch of questions geared towards Judaism such as how often you attend synagogue, what form of Judaism you affiliate with, whether you adhere to dietary laws, etc. If a member is not Jewish, they ask whether or not they would consider converting to Judaism.
I quickly found out that there are two types of service: free and premium. The premium subscription is about $20 a month so I obviously opted for the free version. I can have a profile, search for members, reply to instant messages, and send “flirts” but I can’t email or start a chat.
Similarly to Facebook, JDate has notifications that let you know when someone has viewed your profile, IM’d you, or sent you a flirt.
Something that is really frustrating is the lack of email capability on the free version. I have gotten multiple alerts from JDate letting me know that “NittanyLion,” “CatchNJ,” “MD_Miami” and more have sent me a message but I cannot read them or send any back. I guess I will have to resort to Instant Messaging in order to participate more.
(Sorry for the backlog in posts!)
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