Not long ago, I noticed that people were throwing around the expression “I heart” rather than saying “I love”. I assume this was meant to be cute.
Personally, as a writer and someone over 3 years of age, I found it to be annoying. I’m fine with using a heart as a symbol for love. It’s a great visual and has certainly been used successfully in the ads for New York.
However, to use it instead of love in a sentence is as contrived as putting daisies over your i’s and j’s. Thankfully though, “I heart” is no longer de rigueur (how’s that for contrived!).
However, I now see “luv” being used just as misguidedly.
Today I scanned three of the biggest dating sites: match.com, okCupid and Plenty of Fish. On each one, I found a fair share of dating profiles that used luv instead of love. I luv cycling. I luv food. I luv taking a perfectly good four-letter word and turning it into a three-letter word, and I luv doing this for no good reason.
I don’t understand. People are saving all of one character. Why not just write love correctly? What’s the point of writing it as luv? The only thing I can figure is that someone might be trying to attract illiterate singles, but even that doesn’t make sense because an illiterate single wouldn’t be reading an online dating profile.
Instead of using a confusing element to your online dating profile. Be clear. If you love baseball then write you love baseball, not you luv baseball. If you want to exercise some license with language, do it with reason and/or cleverness. Be fun. Be clever. But, do be careful not to sound a little juvenile.
A final note about your online dating profile.
Not everyone is comfortable writing their online dating profile. Sometimes, when trying to be conversational or light-hearted, they can be a little too informal.
So if you’re not sure how to bring out the best in yourself, then let me. Check out my online dating profile samples and see how I do it.
Or, get started with the personality questionnaire. It seems like gimmick but it’s actually very helpful at uncovering the anecdotes, expressions and even the quirks that make each of us so interesting. Once you’ve completed it, send your answers to me and I’ll craft an online dating profile that’ll make you stand out in way that’s light and conversational, but highly strategic.
