buyers beware

In listing my favorite advertisements, I forgot to mention this one:

I like to spend time cackling over the stupidity of moving in with someone you know nothing about, but I realize this may come back in stunningly bad karmic retribution as I am about to move in with someone who could be this posterboy, so I refrain from berating these imaginary people out loud. I still enjoy cackling to myself about the naivete of this women though.

This ad also amuses me because it reminds me of the proliferation of background checks in 21st century dating. Partly because people are out there on Craigslist, Match.com, and god knows what else. But also because we have Myspace, Facebook, and of course, the powers of Google at our disposal. I have often mocked people who go to such lengths, citing their efforts as time-consuming and ineffective. This includes my current boyfriend, who admitted to having googled me, thus earning him several minutes of ridicule. After all, just because Melinda did the due diligence on my behalf, doesn’t mean I solicited such services.

But this post is also a retraction of all scornful past remarks (about online background research – I can’t take them all back). Because I read this article today about a woman who googled her boyfriend of five years and found him listed as one of America’s Most Wanted. So, okay, perhaps this exercise is not completely useless.

Melinda – You are right. As always.