In the interests of research I’m looking at ‘online dating’. Honest guv..well if it wasn’t research I wouldn’t be saying anything about it here, in public. What a weird world it is. I can sort of see why people get involved in it; it can be a desperately lonely experience living in big cities, and even a wide circle of friends doesn’t provide all the stimulation and interests you might want. Also I know people with very large circles of friends who never seem to meet anyone they might be able to start a relationship with; and that can be dis-spiriting.

I really wonder what the answer is as I can just about pluck up the courage to browse through the ‘galleries’ of people’s photographs. I am a long way from sending anyone a message and doubt I’d do that. I find people I don’t know sending me messages out of the blue a positively scary experience.

But I am intrigued what real life meetings are like having only ever met a person in a virtual environment. I’m sure there are people writing books and research papers on this.

And the other thing I really, really don’t understand is people posing in their underwear. Don’t they think that people that they work with, or people they know might be browsing around as well? Am I missing a whole new development in popular culture that I don’t understand and don’t understand the rules of?