I’m not someone that has ever been on social media.

I despise FB, for all the well publicized reasons.

But with Nextdoor, it was different. Everyone on this site is your actual neighbor. Nextdoor has a real name and physical address policy. So I dipped in a toe.

After several months on ND, I have found myself in the unexpected position of having a crush on someone that I have never met in person!

It started with mutual admiration of each other’s posts. He posted things that made me laugh, so I tapped the smiley face or the heart symbol. I posted things to try to make him laugh, and it worked. He tapped the smiley face and the heart symbol on my postings.

Finally I took a look at his profile photo. He has the nicest eyes. A bit older than me, which I usually prefer. He described himself, and he grew up in the same area I did. So after a while of doing this, I finally dropped him a private message.

I said hey, Tom (not his real name) how ya doin’, my fellow New Yawker? He responded amicably. We texted back and forth a bit, but mostly have gone back to liking each other’s posts.

I have a real crush on this guy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at his profile photo. From his postings I can see that he lives only a couple of blocks from me. He takes pictures of things in my immediate neighborhood, so I can see he’s often right near by. I keep hoping I will run into him in the neighborhood, but how the hell do you even recognize people when everyone is wearing a mask? My profile doesn’t have my picture, so he doesn’t know what I look like. But I might still be able to recognize him just because I’m so familiar with his eyes from the picture. I have to admit it’s given me a reason to put on makeup, fix my hair and stroll the neighborhood! And that’s positive.

This is very strange to me. If It wasn’t for the coronavirus, I don’t think I would even be on ND. It’s the isolation that brought me there. I’m sure the virus has made a lot of people reach out to connect this way. Where I live we have been sheltering in place for 124 days now. It’s not fun.

Am I being silly? I don’t really know much about this guy. You do sort of get a feel for someone’s personality by reading what they post publicly over time. But for all I know, Tom could have a wife at home. Or a hundred other things. I sure don’t have any interest in married men. But then again, how much do you know about anybody, until you get to know them?

It’s just that I have never even considered the possibility of having feelings for someone I have met on the Internet, but never in person. Most peculiar, Mama, as John Lennon sang.

#Love #CrushingOnSomeone #VirtualReality #Shyness #Attraction #Datingafter40 #datingwithdisabilities #OnlineDating