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The grocery store is a good place to meet new people. (Image courtesy of Ambro/FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Online dating has been great for many reasons. We get to meet people we would
never meet in our day-to-day life. We know a lot of the other person’s statistics, so our first date doesn’t feel like an interview. We can send our friends screenshots of our Tinder matches and judge each other’s taste. It’s been fun all around.

But online dating has also made us lazy and unsocialized. People don’t know how to start a conversation with someone standing two feet away from them. Cheesy pickup lines have started dying out. It’s quite an epidemic and it’s time we relearned how to have conversations without emoticons. Here are some easy steps to talking to humans.

1) Put your phone away. When you don’t have your eyes glued to your phone you can easily look at your surroundings and notice the adorable hipster guy reading a Malcolm Gladwell book across the room.

2) Make eye contact. This shows that you have interest and possibly a soul. This also invites another person to make conversation.

3) Talk to the other person in a way that generates conversation. Don’t start off with “hi” or “hello.” This will come off as weird. You don’t go around greeting everyone in public unless you happen to stand by the front entrance of a Wal-Mart, so don’t use it to pick up dates. You can start off by asking an observational question about something relating to your target person. “How do you like that almond milk?” or “Is that a Lauryn Hill T-shirt? Have you seen what a mess she is in concert?” If the other person is interested in talking to you, they will give you an answer that is over four words.

4) Leave your house. You have to be in the same room as new people if you want to interact with them. Even a trip to your local Whole Foods will do the trick. Single people generally don’t like to cook so you will find them in the deli aisle picking up their dinner for one. Ask them for their phone number or card. Most adults have business cards, and it gives you all the info you need to Google them because you know it’s the first thing you’ll want to do when they walk away.

There you have it. In five easy steps you can be on your way to a date with someone who you know will not catfish you. Now get out there, and talk away!

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