Tips for online dating

 I have decided to start a new series, that I will be talking about from time to time.

It's things that I have learned along the way, the hard way that would have prevented me from ending up meeting a monster like Asshole.

The first and most important is to do a deep dive in the various internet search engines and social media.

Asshole begged me not to Google him. Red flag number one.

Here are some important places to search when you are doing some pre-screening before going to meet someone the first time:

Google - obviously! Try Googling their name and various combinations of their city, work, and even words like assault, criminal record, etc. 

Facebook (Instagram, etc) - Find their social media and see what they post. Someone going on and on about the narcissists and flying monkeys in their life screams trouble. In my experience, the person posting the memes is trying to deflect attention from what they are really doing. Also, if they keep posting the same 5 year old photo of their kids, that's a red flag. Again, there is a reason that they don't have more recent photos of their kids, and no one wants to date a dead beat dad.

ONe-key - This is important if you are in Ontario. On here, you can search court records. I only learned this recently. If you search Asshole's name, it does come up, with his next court appearance, and beside his name it says that there is a publication ban. It won't say the charges, but it's a red flag that there are charges. If I had done this, I would have found that he was on the list for something else back in 2019. I know this, because police officers told me there was a warrant for his arrest. (Another fun thing with ONe-key is that you can also search Civil court, Asshole has activity on that side as well.)

Also, within the Facebook search, it's always good to check out their local community Facebook group. Type their name in the search bar and see what they say, when they are behind a keyboard and think no one is paying attention. It's very interesting and a good predictor of what is to come when the shine wears off.