Tech Dating 101

In this digital age, men and women aren't just hitting bars and coffee shops to snag a date. More and more, they're heading to the Internet. In fact, 50 percent of men have met a woman online according to a recent survey. It's obvious that online dating has become the norm, and for good reason — the Internet gives you more options because you can cover a wider area of partner possibilities (as in, the entire globe). And while your chances are better of finding a compatible mate on the worldwide web than, say, your small town of 13,000 people, the Internet can't help you if you don't give off the right signals. First impressions are everything — even virtual ones. Beef up your online dating profile with these tips, and snag yourself one of those "many fish" your mother is always talking about.

• Make sure you're fishing in the right pool —You wouldn't go to Craigslist's Casual Encounters to look for a serious relationship, so don't go to Match.com if you're just looking for a little fun on a Friday night. Sites like eHarmony and Chemistry have had a lot of success by getting scientific about the dating process (taking your likes and dislikes and matching you up with someone who's compatible), so make sure you're ready to commit before diving in!
• Lose the negativity — No one wants to meet up with a Debbie Downer, so if your online dating profile is riddled with sarcasm, negativity, and pessimism, you can be sure that you won't be getting many date requests any time soon. This doesn't mean you have to be fake, just keep the "I'm too cool for school" attitude to a minimum.

See a few more tips, including some important dos and don'ts for your profile photos, when you read more

Geeks are generally stereotyped as socially awkward with an inability to strike up a conversation with the opposite sex. These 13 geekiest pickup lines, compiled from McSweeney's Ineffective Pickup Lines For the Modern Internet Persona and our GeekSugar community, might just prove that fact. Pro tip: you might not want to use these when trying to score a Valentine's Day date.

Have you ever heard a totally geeky pickup line at a tech conference, geek convention, or meet-up? Share them with us in the comments!

• "Do you come here often? I do. I’m the Foursquare mayor, actually, which means I come here more than anyone else. That reminds me, I need to check in . . . "
• "My Klout score is an 83, which makes me a Thought Leader. There’s a lot of pressure to stay relevant and forward thinking, when you’re that influential. A few subpar tweets and I could be downgraded to Specialist. I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with being a Specialist . . . You’re not a Specialist, are you?"
• "My US Alexa ranking is 22K, which is fairly impressive for a blog about soft cheeses. It’s not always smooth sailing, though. It can be difficult coming up with compelling content. Brie sort of loses its luster after a few years, you know?"

Check out the GeekSugar Community's favorite science-loving pickup lines after the break.

The matches resulting in your current online dating profile seem sweet enough, but what do you do upon learning that they love Justin Bieber and haven't even heard of MGMT? Since music is so much a part of the digital generation's lives, Tastebuds was founded to help single people find their match with locals in their area who share the same musical preferences.

The site makes finding love as easy as personal music selections and can be uploaded directly from a last.fm user account. Of course, you can opt to add artists and bands manually when building a profile. Profiles can also be synced with upcoming concerts and live acts. Telling the Tastebuds world you're headed to a Black Keys show on Friday night could result in an impromptu date scheduled with a future perfect match.

We often talk about navigating dating in a digital world, and just when we thought we had it mastered, the witty folks at McSweeney's come up with a list of ineffective (in our techie circle that's debatable) technology pickup lines. Here are our top three come-ons from McSweeney's, plus three crowd-sourced from the GeekSugar Facebook page. If someone approached with you these gems, would you run for the hills or stop to learn more about the Casanova's Klout score?

McSweeney's Ineffective Pickup Lines For the Modern Internet Persona

• "Do you come here often? I do. I’m the Foursquare mayor, actually, which means I come here more than anyone else. That reminds me, I need to check in . . . "
• "My Klout score is an 83, which makes me a Thought Leader. There’s a lot of pressure to stay relevant and forward thinking, when you’re that influential. A few sub-par tweets and I could be downgraded to Specialist. I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with being a Specialist . . . you’re not a Specialist, are you?"
• "My U.S. Alexa ranking is 22K, which is fairly impressive for a blog about soft cheeses. It’s not always smooth sailing, though. It can be difficult coming up with compelling content. Brie sort of loses its luster after a few years, you know?"

Check out the GeekSugar Community's science loving pickup lines after the break.

A recent study shows that breaking up the old-fashioned way (aka face-to-face) is going the way of the pager. In fact, 10 percent of iOS users, 15 percent of BlackBerry users, and 18 percent of Android users say they've broken up with someone digitally instead of talking it out in person. On the bright side, at least you didn't get the breakup bomb via Post-it? Here are five ways smartphone users throw dating etiquette to the wind, and break up via technology. Tsk, tsk.

• The breakup text: Although a majority of right-minded people say that breaking up over text is heartless, it happens. I'll put it to you this way: if your significant other checks his texts during sexy time, it's pretty likely that he'll use his favorite way of communicating to do the breaking up as well.
• The Facebook fiasco: If people think it's OK to fire employees over Facebook, it's likely that there are plenty of Facebook breakups happening as we speak. If that's not bad enough, you then have to go ahead and change your relationship status and sit through the barrage of condolences from your friends.
• The voicemail substitute: Here's to hoping that all those sweet voicemails you saved at the beginning of your relationship don't turn into the one you'll never forgive. Breaking up over voicemail is just gross. Don't be "that guy."
• The email explanation: There's nothing worse than getting a lame breakup email explaining everything your ex couldn't say in person. Well, maybe there are worse things. Take for example . . .
• The Twitter trick: Breaking up in 140 characters is probably the most humiliating way to end a relationship (albeit very on trend wouldn't you say?). Hopefully, your now-ex would have the decency to send a direct message instead of a mass tweet for all his followers to see. Hopefully.

AskMen.com and Cosmopolitan teamed up to release the results of the Great Male/Female Survey. The poll of more than 80,000 men and women around the world looks at the current state of love, health, fashion, and life for both sexes. Of course, we're a bit more interested in the survey's findings on dating in a digital world.

• Both men and women are nearly equally comfortable with a partner friending an ex on Facebook. Forty-four percent of men say this is fine, and 40 percent of women are not bothered with exes keeping in touch.
• More of the surveyed women are tempted to read a partner's Facebook messages or emails. Twenty-nine percent of women would not peek at this correspondence, compared to the 36 percent of men who refuse to look at private messages.
• Online dating? Sure! Only 37 percent of men and 44 percent of women would completely rule out the prospect of finding a mate through a matchmaking website.

With the intricacies of digital life, social networks, and online dating moving into the mainstream, perhaps it's now OK to make this assumption: both men and women are looking at tech life through the same (digital) lens.

Dating in of itself is quite the challenge, but toss in technology? Well, the situation can get even more complicated and ripe for a few mishaps. Keep a look out for these 10 tech dating blunders to avoid, and you should make through your next relationship unscathed.

• Taking calls at dinner — If your date decides that dinner conversation with you isn't as interesting as a call from his buddy, it's time to get the check and part ways. Passes are given for emergencies of course.
• Spying — Googling your potential lover may be tempting (and I approve for general knowledge), but digitally spying on your boyfriend will only lead to trouble . . . and most likely a breakup.
• Dumping via text . . . or email, or Twitter, or Facebook — Breaking up is hard to do, but please show some respect and hash things out face-to-face instead of dumping someone digitally. So harsh.

Check out the rest of my list when you read more.