How Long Should You Wait to Meet Someone You Met Online

Did you chat with someone truly special a couple of weeks ago online? Has the spark been there since the day you started talking to each other? Do you have a lot of things in common? If the answer to all of these questions is “yes”, you might have started thinking about meeting that special someone in person.

But, doing so is never easy, especially when you think about the fact that there have been some instances where people have been catfishes. Because of this, you might be wondering about how long you should wait to meet someone you’ve met online. To put it simply, it’ll depend on various factors:

1. Did You Get to Know Them Well?

As mentioned, catfishing does often happen in the world of online dating, which is one of the main reasons why you must get to know someone virtually as you would in person. People that pose as someone they aren’t will most likely use photographs that aren’t theirs, hence, if they end up rejecting your suggestions to go on a date, they might either not be ready or they might not be who they say they are.

Of course, everyone needs time to determine whether or not they should meet up with someone they’ve met online, nonetheless, if they constantly refuse to exchange pictures, what they’re doing, as well as, for instance, the part of town they live in, you should be concerned. So, before rushing, you might want to make sure that you’re actually talking to a real person, instead of someone that is pretending to be someone else. Thankfully, these days it’s possible to run a person search lookup on your potential date (via an online service like information.com) to see what information you can find out about them online ahead of meeting in-person.

2. Don’t Rush The Process, It’s Okay to Wait

To be completely honest, the time you’ll wait to go on a date with someone you’ve met online will entirely depend on you and your relationship with the other individual, meaning that the timeframe will be different for each person. This is why you might want to work at your own pace since going too fast or too slow might cause the other person to be intimidated and concerned – something that you’ll definitely want to avoid happening.

Hence, depending on your preferences and schedules, you could determine whether you’ll need more time to meet up or if you first want to exchange more messages to get to know each other better. Naturally, no matter how long you wait, you’ll most likely feel quite nervous – which is exactly how the other person might be feeling as well. One of the best things that you could do is to actually talk to the individual about it.

3. Too Much Chatting Before The Date Can Be Bad

If you avoid going on a date with someone for a really long time, in the end, you might end up not meeting at all. How is that possible? Well, it’s quite simple, you’ll look uninterested, your views on online dating might change, or some personal issues might arise that’ll hinder you or the other individual from seeing each other. Of course, you’ll have to talk to the person in order to get to know them, nonetheless, if you’ve already set up a date, you might want to avoid chatting too much before the date.

Also, avoiding all daunting and difficult questions such as “what are you looking for in a boyfriend/girlfriend?” and/or “what type of girls/boys do you prefer”, can help you quite a lot, mostly because you won’t intimidate the other person. Keep in mind, you should focus on meeting someone in person instead of looking for someone to simply be in a relationship with. By taking things slow, you’ll most likely feel less nervous as well.

4. Don’t Meet Up After Two to Three Days

As we mentioned at the beginning of our article, it’s incredibly important that you actually get to know someone before seeing them. Hence, going on a date after two or three days of chatting is a big no-no. Additionally, suggesting last-minute dates out of nowhere should be avoided, mostly because you might come off as too pushy and it can also cause you to come off disrespectful of the other individual’s time and schedule.

This is why the experts from ChatSpin recommend that you be extra careful about someone that is insisting that you see each other several days after you initially started talking. Besides this being a sign of rushing, it can also be quite dangerous and misleading – both of which you’ll certainly want to avoid. Hence, waiting for about two to three weeks or a month will be sufficient enough for you to meet the person you chatted with.

5. Initiate Seeing Each Other in Person

One of the easiest ways for you to initiate meeting up in person is to subtly give the other person your cellphone number. You could, for example, say that you don’t have that much time to use the app or that you’re hanging out with friends and that it’s easier for you to text than to access the app every time. By offering them your number before they offer theirs, you’ll clearly state that you’re interested in taking things to the next level.

6. Where Should You Head to?

This article wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention more about where you should meet with someone you’ve met online. When it comes to the first date you’ll have, it’ll entirely depend on what you want to do with them. For instance, if you know they like coffee, maybe you can go to a coffee shop or if you know that they like cakes and cookies, a bakery would be perfect, especially since you can make conversation about different things easily. Whatever you choose, ensure that it’s public and that there are other people around.

Conclusion

All of the factors we’ve mentioned in our list above are extremely important for you to consider before determining whether or not you should meet someone online. By doing so, you won’t only be able to determine if you should meet someone you’ve met online, but you’ll also ensure that you remain safe.

So, now that you know all the factors that’ll influence how long you should wait until you meet someone you’ve been chatting with, don’t lose time. Instead, go through our list one more time, consider all the things we’ve mentioned, and then, finally make a decision about what you should or shouldn’t do.