Getting Fixed-Up On A Blind Data

This just in according to Kennedy News and Media - A British woman who went on a romantic getaway with a man she met on Tinder hit some turbulence after the couple was confronted by the man’s pregnant girlfriend upon their return. According to the woman, "It was a whirlwind romance. The whole thing happened so fast. It sounded too good to be true, and that’s because it was." The trip came to a crashing finish when the couple was met at the airport by the man’s heavily pregnant and furious girlfriend along with her family. Wow. Talk about a hard landing.

Sometimes I think about the differences in dating between the Boomer generation and today’s younger people. Back in my day, the "fix-up” was a tool often used by mostly mothers who lived in areas such as the one in which I grew-up which shall remain nameless. Oh what the hell, I grew up in Skokie. Sometimes friends would do the fix-up, but a poor choice could lead to the end of that friendship. That would never happen with dear old mom. After all, you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your mother.

These days, especially since the pandemic, finding a partner can be a treacherous journey. For a while, it looked like the internet would be a pandemic panacea. After all, there are plenty of dating applications such as the aforementioned Tinder, Match, OK Cupid and Zoosk. There are even sites for specific types of people such as Silver Singles, Christian Mingle, JDate and Muzz. With a nod to Eddie Albert, if farm living is the life for you, there’s FarmersOnly.

But leave it to malicious people to ruin the online dating thing. Besides running into a pregnant girlfriend, well-intentioned people are looking for love in all the wrong places. Not only are they losing their hearts, but they’re also losing lots of money, to pond scum known as "Catfishers”. A catfisher is an individual who uses the Internet, and in particular, online dating websites to lure people into a scam romance. The general goal of a catfisher is financial gain by developing an online relationship with another person. There’s a website called socialcatfish.com which is dedicated to unmasking these bottom-feeders. There’s also a terrific podcast from a partnership of the British and Canadian Broadcasting Corporations called "Love Janessa”, which really tears into the horrors of online dating. While I know that in certain cultures, matchmaking still exists, if only my mother were still around, she could start her own service called "fixyouup.com” and a new era of blind dating would begin.

Unfortunately, while blind dating may be a thing of the past, we are in an era of blind data. I speak to a lot of people about their Cell, Internet and Television services. When I do, I often use a Client Assessment Questionnaire in order to help me determine what’s important to those people. A few of the questions I ask are about Cellular and Internet data-use including how important unlimited data is. Invariably, the answer will be "very important”. Then I ask if the person knows how much data that they use each month for both services. Less than five percent of the people who I have asked answer "Yes". I’m not trying to trap anyone with that question. In fact, before I started Lower Tech Bills, I would have been in the 95% who would have answered in the negative.

The most important reason why almost everyone has no idea how much data they use is that the information on data-usage can be very difficult to find on your bill. With some providers, you actually need to sign-on to your online account in order to find that number. Yet knowing how much data that you use each month is a very important tool in helping you to save money. It goes right along with how much speed you need. However, that’s a topic for another post.

Cellular and Internet companies want you to think that you need unlimited data when chances are you don’t - at least not for both services. That’s because unlimited plans cost the most money. Unless you use a lot of data on your home internet and/or on your cell phone or tablet, you may not need unlimited data at all. It’s just that the word, “unlimited” sounds so darn good. It’s like going to the Golden Corral of data. But just as buffet restaurants will surely come out ahead of your stomach, your Cell and Internet provider will come out ahead in your data use.

If you want to save money on data, it’s really important for you to learn how much data that you use each month and for what you use it. One of the things I can do is to show you a spreadsheet that will help you to determine how much data that you need based on what you do each month. Lowering your monthly data plan is just one of many ways that Lower Tech Bills can help you save money on your Cellular, Internet and Television costs. I’ve been able to save households from hundreds to even thousands of dollars with some savings ongoing. For a free look at your bills email hmwellsradio@gmail.com or visit www.lowertechbills.com. After all, who wants to be on a blind data when I can fix you up with the right match?