To some this might seem like a foreign concept, but it’s a thing.

I read once in Glamour magazine that it’s called ‘Pre-dating”. Pre-dating comes before you exchange numbers, sometimes before you meet. Sounds stalker-ish, but it has its pro’s.

I’m pro- googling. I Google girls, guys, friends, and family. Not to a stalker-ish level, but to a level good enough to know they’re killers, fraudsters or wanted.

Look at it this way, before the Internet – and before our whole lives where a click away – you would ask mutual friends if they could vouch for the said person.

It’s the same thing, except you’re getting the information for yourself, no third parties involved.

Let’s have pros and cons of goggling a potential date

Pros:

• You’ve most likely dodged a drug dealing, serial killer. Just saying.
• If you find information that suits you, you’re more comfortable on the date. There’s less pressure on you because you know your facts

Cons:

• You’ve judged the person. You haven’t even given him/her a chance to be real with you. You’ve used that one tweet they tweeted hundred years ago.
• You don’t have that spark. You know the one you feel when they start disclosing information to you. Yea. You miss out on that because you already knew their dog died 4 months ago.
• You might slip up and look like a creep. “Oh yea, that was at your sisters party last weekend right’
• Information put online is controlled by the owner. It can be easily manipulated.

I did a poll on twitter to see if I was the only one that felt this way. And I must say, I wasn’t surprised.

As Nigerians would put it, “Prevention is better than cure”.

Let us know what your thoughts are in the comment section below.