Do online chats now count as dates?

I vote no, but the line gets blurry with technological breakthroughs such as video and voice capabilities.

I always expected the first online contact to be akin to that first conversation in a bar when a man starts off by giving you that "Hey, cutie" come-hither look before summing up the courage to sidle up next to you and say hi. Much like these physical interactions, boys online will send an assortment of over-anxious first messages with every line in the book from "I bet you get this all the time, but you have the most beautiful smile" to "which would you choose, finding someone you can love and be with forever, or being in total control of your very own dragon?" *NOTE* I did not make this last one up; I took it verbatim from one of my inbox messages.

Sometimes they catch you online and start a live chat. This seems harmless enough alright, except when a half-Jewish, half-Brazilian *stud* surprises you with a "hey, can I test out my camera?" and immediately feeds lives video of him rocking out with uninhibited table-slamming and air-drumming (sans sound) before you can respond.
Me: Haha, OK. New comp?
Half-Jewish, half-Brazilian stud: Yeah
(break for round two of SUPER ROCK-OUT SESH)
Half-Jewish, half-Brazilian stud: Sorry, it's Israeli music,
...because that makes it so much cooler.

But seriously now, did I get tricked into an online date? In a world of speed-dating on lunch breaks and cyber-sex late a night (or in the middle of the afternoon), where does this experience fall on the scale of Cyberpersonal Interaction?

Clearly, I still have much to learn.

Getting started

How do 20-something-singles meet each other in the city? What do you do on a first date? How much information do you divulge about yourself? How do I get back in the game??

After a month of fending off unsolicited attention by seedy men in bars, I decided to try something new. My best girlfriend has been Practice Dating all summer via online dating sites with some success, some failure, and a whole lot of awkward. Needless to say, she has inspired me.

Over the course of this next year, I plan to go on 50 first dates with New York's eligible bachelors. I will turn away NO man who finds me online, unless they are younger than 22, older than 28, or live outside the city. This blog will serve as an unadulterated testimony to my dating trials and tribulations. I hope you can learn for my mistakes and successes, and get a good laugh at the unpredictable eccentricities of interpersonal interaction.