A lifestyle _ romance
L.A. confidential By Stephanie d’Arc Taylor
The last time I went on a date in Los Angeles, George W. Bush was president and we were still rolling our eyes at people who had iPhones. Since then, online dating has become something you don’t need to keep secret for fear of becoming a social pariah. I’ve been on OkCupid in New York and used Tinder in Beirut. But how are people in L.A., that sun-kissed, sprawled-out, film-noir paradise that I call home, using the Internet to make human contact? “Tinder is not over,” says my college friend Randy, 32, over cocktails at The Brig in Venice. “In fact, I’ve been killing it on Tinder” – which, to him, means casually hooking up with women – “more than ever since I added a line about my new job,”
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editor of a hipper-than-thou electronic music website. He refuses to show me his chats, but his profile depicts a fade haircut and bemused expression despite glamorous locales, making him look like some kind of hipster king. I’m not surprised he’s raking in the swipe-rights. Ava, on the other hand, a 29-year-old actor, refuses to use Tinder to meet guys. “It’s dangerous,” she insists. “You could get to talking to a super hot guy, then find out he’s an actor or a D.J.,” an actual, apparently unacceptable, thing that happened to her last month at a rehearsal. “I need more information about a guy before agreeing to go out with him.” After years of resistance, she set up a profile on OkCupid a few months ago, the free matching site that absolutely everyone in New York was on when I was
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Hooking up in the City of Angels