Dating in the Digital Age

Forget trekking to bars and participating in speed dating to find your true love. Online dating has become the new popular way to meet your soul mate. There are many websites that cater to people looking to get set up in the virtual world. These include Match.com, JDate.com and eHarmony.com. Just when you think you’ve mustered up enough courage to date in the online world, a new way to find a date has surfaced.

Welcome to Skout, the first-ever social dating application that allows people to use their mobile phone. People can flirt, chat and belong to a community of singles who want to chat online and then meet in the real world. The application allows you to tell potential love interests what you’re all about by posting mobile pictures or notes.

Recently, Skout proudly introduced Skout OUT which is real time online dating in bars and clubs across America. According to a press release on the website, Skout is "leveraging location-based services and 42" touch-screen plasma displays stationed in bars and clubs across the US. Single men and women looking for love need only let their fingers do the walking to flirt, send virtual gifts, or dedicate a passionate song to someone that inspires their senses. Skout OUT currently interacts with hundreds of thousands of Skout users using their iPhones, cell phones and laptops to find love on Skout's mobile dating service."

If you think buying someone a drink at a bar is enough to get a date, you might want to think again. Not only do you have to put your best face forward in the online world, you will need to be accessible with your phone. "Skout OUT solves the age-old problem of finding and approaching singles," said Skout's CEO and founder Christian Wiklund. "As an industry first, we are connecting the virtual online dating world with the real world. Skout OUT enables singles at clubs to 'see' not only available singles at their location, but also singles in other nearby venues as well as Skout mobile phone users. Skout OUT is an important new tool in our company's mission to make finding love easier."

Will people be willing to swipe their credit card or insert cash into the build-in payment system to purchase virtual gifts or music and send to prospects at the bar? Although the process seems convoluted, it’s feasible many bar-hoppers will participate—especially after they’ve had a few cocktails. Even though some people might not feel comfortable announcing their dating interests for everyone to see, it seems like the norm to try different avenues and routes to find true love. The old saying “Never frown; you never know when someone's falling in love with your smile” rings true in the digital world now too. So get your game face on!

While SKOUT presented at the DEMO 09 conference yesterday, TechCrunch had a preview of the program and posted this video clip:


Skout OUT from Robin Wauters on Vimeo.