by Adrianna Ohmes

The Christian rock music filled the air, and the guy her friend had set her up with was really nice. She’d been set up a handful of times before, but it had never really worked out. She’d only been talking to this guy for a couple weeks, but she really liked him. They had hit it off from the start and he asked her out the next day.

Junior Katie Crow’s first date with ex-boyfriend Zech was set up by a good friend. “It was a great date,” Crow said. They dated for about three months afterwards.

Junior Mary Hart’s blind date worked out a little differently. Her first and only blind date “was a favor for a friend” and didn’t go well.

“It was to a dance, and I paid for his dinner and mine,” said Hart. “He didn’t even talk to me the whole night. I got away from him at the dance, but then I ran into him at the afterparty. It was awkward and I left [the afterparty] early.”

Both girls had looked at her respective date’s Facebook profile before they went out.

“It didn’t help,” Hart said. “Even if you’ve looked them up, you don’t know a person’s personality [from their profile].”

Hart had only looked at her date’s profile. Crow’s friend had told her date and her to message each other so they could see if they liked each other.

“I feel like Facebook messaging is no different than messaging someone on their phone,” Crow said.

So what is a blind date technically?

Social studies teacher, Pat Sirridge, said that a blind date is, “Literally getting set up with someone you don’t know, by someone you do know.”

If you can find your date’s profile online, and check them out, does that help you get to know them before you actually meet them?

“You can get somewhat of an idea about a person based on their likes and interests, but you don’t get the whole picture,” said Crow. “It makes it easier to eliminate fish out of that sea.”

With Facebook having 845 million monthly users and Twitter having over 465 million accounts, social networking has reached a new high. It’s easier than it ever has been to access anyone’s information online, and it’s easier to contact people you may have never actually known.That’s millions of fish in the sea.

“[Social networking] allows people to have access to more dateable people,” Sirridge said. “There used to be a stigma to online networking, it really has gone away. It’s more acceptable socially now.”

So why do people continue to go on blind dates when there’s a chance that it may or may not work out? You’ve never officially meant the person. The date could be a hit like Crow’s or a miss like Hart’s. You could end up with a relationship or a wallet with less money in it and an unsuccessful evening.

“We believe that getting together is a big deal socially,” Sirridge said. “Being with people is the norm. [Blind dating] is just a way of getting people together, and it’s amplified with social networking. Like all dating, it’s an attempt to meet someone to develop a relationship with.”

Both girls agreed that if they were set up by their friends again, they would prefer to hang out with their dates before they actually went out. They also said that they’d check out their dates’ Facebook profile too.

“If I really trusted my friend enough, I’d go on another blind date,” Hart said. “But with my last one, it was just luck of the draw.”

The girls’ advice for anyone who’s planning on going out on a blind date is that you should get your friend’s opinion first, and keep an open mind.

“If you haven’t met, you don’t know how they’ll be,” Crow said. “Don’t always trust a friend because they might have had a different experience.”