By Deanne Revel
According to SecretAdmirer.com, romance “just got easier.”
The New York Times, Glamour magazine, Time magazine and Elle magazine love “the electronic cupid”. SecretAdmirer.com lets users send anonymous e-mails to their crushes. The crushes can then send e-mails to their own crushes—hopefully one to the original admirer. The SecretAdmirer.com database detects matches and automatically reveals both admirers’ identities in a final email.
SecretAdmirer.com says, “It’s safe, and it’s free!” But isn’t it also a bit frigid?
A classmate recently told me, “In 2009, anonymous cards and flowers aren’t fairy-tale anymore.”
I’m not sure if non-electronic secret admiration has lost all of its endearing qualities, but it has certainly lost its Disney magic.
My friend found an anonymous love note under her windshield wiper the other day. The craftsmanship and presentation were terrible. The note was crumpled and it wasn’t even a full page. Apparently, the author had (economically!) ripped a corner off a piece of computer paper. Also, who uses pencil on significant documents? Blue or black ink, please.
The worst part was all the grammatical errors: misspelled words and lack of capitalization and punctuation. The author did include a correct cell phone number, which my friend immediately texted.
Word spread and classmates were aghast—not at the pseudo-rapist font or fourth grade reading level of the note, but at my friend’s behavior. She initiated contact. No one thought the note was sweet. The author was referred to, in conversation, as a stalker instead of an admirer.
One of my professors even scolded my friend, “If you keep talking to that boy, I’m going to call your mother.”
This proves that—no matter how dry or desperate contemporary secret admiration is—the respondent continues to feel flattered (or at least a little curious).
SecretAdmirer.com claims that more than 100,000 admirers have been matched.
I can’t deny the novelty of an automated message. It’s certainly not as intrusive as a note under a windshield wiper. I still find it disheartening that some consider an anonymous email more sincere than a card and more romantic than flowers.
At least SecretAdmirer.com uses spell check.
