Rant: I spent 2 years using gym selfies before a friend told me it was repelling matches

I thought showing off my progress at the gym would work. Every pic was me flexing in a mirror at Planet Fitness. Then my friend Sarah flat out said "dude that makes you look like a try-hard." She showed me my own profile and I cringed. I swapped to a photo of me hiking at Red Rock Canyon last fall and my match rate went up like 4x in a week. Anybody else miss something obvious like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_young767d ago

Oh come on, is it really that deep though? I mean yeah maybe flexing in every pic is a bit much but I doubt it's the difference between getting dates and not. People overthink this stuff way too much, just use whatever pics you like and if someone doesn't vibe with it then whatever.

ray_williams7d ago

Just use whatever pics you like and if someone doesn't vibe with it then whatever"... man, that's wild to me. I mean, I get not overthinking every little thing, but dating profiles are basically your first impression to a bunch of strangers. You're telling me you'd post a blurry selfie with a toilet in the background and just shrug it off? I've seen people swipe left on profiles just for bad lighting or a weird angle, so flexing in every pic is definitely gonna turn heads for the wrong reason. It's not about being perfect, it's about showing you're normal and approachable, not like you're trying too hard. That "whatever" attitude might work for you, but most folks are judging way harder than you think.

the_terry7d ago

Nah it really is that deep though, honestly. I see this same thing play out at the hardware store all the time - people come in asking for the most expensive tool because they think it makes them look serious, but they don't even know how to use it properly. Same energy as the gym selfie thing. Everyone's so worried about looking like they've got it all figured out that they forget to just be a regular person someone would want to hang out with. The hiking pic swap proves it - you just showed you actually go outside and do stuff, which is way more interesting than biceps in a mirror. It's like putting a price check sticker on a hand truck (you know, one of those two-wheeled dollies we sell). People don't care about the sticker, they care about whether it rolls smooth. Same with dating profiles. Nobody's swiping because you look like a fitness model, they're swiping because you look like someone they could grab a beer with after work.