Teresa Brummett
Online Editor
SPRINGFIELD – They say that love is blind. But a new twist on speed dating is taking that to a whole new level.
In speed dating, participants spends two to three minutes with a prospective paramour. But now, they do it with a paper sack over their heads.
Speed dating got its start in 1998 when Rabbi Yaacov Deyo invited a group of friends to convene in his living room and brainstorm about how he could best serve the local Jewish community The Los Angeles group included several entertainment-industry people, including a game-show producer.
The group decided Jewish singles needed to identify marriage partners with maximum efficiency, and they designed a wacky game in which participants would table-hop their way through a dozen dates in a night.
The first event gave participants 10 minutes for the speed date. When the Rabbi would lift up a gragger (the noisemaker Jews use during Purim), everyone would switch partners and go to their next stranger and start up yet another conversation.
He would give each person a client informational form where he could get feedback on the process, using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the singles and their responses.
About a year later, the speed-dating idea had gone viral, with imitators around the country.
With several online dating sites like: plentyoffish.com, eHarmony, Match.com and Letting It Go, others believe that online dating isn’t as good as speed dating. For example, you can prepare yourself for the real-life interactions with real dates not a computer picture, which you have to hope is the actual person.
With technology changing every day, it’s hard to decide which way you would prefer to date. Looking at the person through a computer screen or bag face to bag face.
Today, Deyo still believes that speed dating is a good way to meet someone, although online places out there believe the opposite. The online does let you see a person’s face, and it lets you browse thousands of singles, not just the dozen at the speed dating event.
So if you want to meet and have a relationship that will be everlasting, it just depends on what you want.
But if you’re not into online dating, you might want to consider speed dating with the bag-covered face as a fun twist.
And remember the saying, “Looks will someday fade, but love is forever.”
Teresa Brummett can be reached at [email protected]