Background Checks And Balances

Say you're engaged and mutually decide to end the relationship. What's the socially-acceptable amount of time you should wait before dating again? In this age of social networking and constant sharing of photos and events, we're almost back to a small-town model where people are privy to all our business. It's likely a guy would see that I'd only been out of an engagement a short time and get worried.

--Three Months Single

The Internet can make a lot of first-date conversation seem irrelevant. Before you even sit down at the restaurant, there's a good chance your date's hacked into your Facebook page, dug up your parole officer's home phone number, Google-Earthed your house from space and then zoomed in to see how you look weeding in a bikini. But what he can't know from Web searches are the nuances, like whether you might be somebody who was out of her relationship in her head long before she could, for example, figure out how to divide the dog. If that's the case, just be open with the guys you date about your circumstances. Some guys may rule you out before you get a chance to explain. But remember the stuff you probably complain about with your girlfriends, like how a hot woman can cause the male IQ to plunge to that of a jelly sandwich. If a guy's into you, he'll probably go out with you first and worry later about minor details -- like, say, how your last five boyfriends all appear to have committed suicide by shooting themselves in the back.