George and Erika Eloff of Dearborn found each other online, joining the growing numbers hooking up on the Internet
Talk about life-changing decisions.
George and Erika Eloff met through eHarmony in January 2004 and got married in March 2005.
A year and a half ago, George and Erika Eloff were both metro Detroit singles trying to figure out where to find a quality date.
Then they posted profiles on the same Internet dating site, met a few weeks later and got married a little more than a year after that.
Now, they’re sitting in their Dearborn home on a Friday evening trying to keep Hannah, their black Labrador puppy, from gnawing everything in sight.
George, 35, and Erika, 29, look so cute and natural as a couple that they ought to be in one of those commercials for Internet dating sites.
They provide a pleasant contrast to the ABC show “Hooking Up” (9 p.m. Thursdays) where singles juggle, mislead, evade and dump potential mates they meet online.
The biggest drama in the Eloffs’ lives involves deciding who has to clean up after Hannah. The Internet actually seems to have worked for George and Erika.
“I’m still shocked she would have anything to do with me,” says George, who acts and looks a bit like the George Costanza character from “Seinfeld.”
“C’mon, she’s out of my league,” he says, looking at his wife.
Erika, a shy redhead, shoots a “please shut up” look his way.
“That’s a compliment,” George tries to explain.
“Thanks,” she replies.
Changing attitudes
A few years ago, George and Erika’s relationship might never have happened. Initially labeled a last resort for losers, Internet dating has gone mainstream.
As the TV show “Hooking Up” reveals, the Internet is far from a magic answer for singles. In the first episode, Cynthia, a 34-year-old hair salon manager, meets a guy online who describes himself as a “slim Fabio.” In person, he looks more like a burned-out hippie.
The dating sites, though, say Internet dating has paid off for thousands of singles. eHarmony knows of at least 12,000 couples married after meeting on its site.
Match.com estimates it has helped hundreds of thousands of singles meet. It receives 200 e-mails or letters each month from couples telling about their engagements or marriages.
The age of online daters ranges from teens to seniors, but both eHarmony and Match.com say the prime audience tends to be people in their 30s who have moved beyond their college social network and are still looking for a mate.
More than 26 million people, or 16% of U.S. Internet users, visited an online dating site last month, according to comScore, a Virginia-based research firm.
The traffic has leveled off from an initial boom two years ago, but comScore estimates that U.S. consumers spent $470 million last year on Internet personals, making it the largest category of paid online content.
George, meet Erika
For Erika and George Eloff, the Internet provided a better way to meet potential dates. Before going online, George, a corporate rep for Nextel, and Erika, a landscape designer for English Gardens, say their dating lives weren’t going well.
“It kind of sucked,” Erika says bluntly. “It was frustrating. I was going out with different guys. I’d go out with them a couple of times here and there. I wasn’t really clicking with anyone.”
In late 2003, Erika registered for eHarmony. A friend who met someone online encouraged her to sign up.
About the same time, George saw a TV ad for the site and registered, too. Within a couple of weeks, their profiles were matched.
They met for lunch in Novi. Sparks didn’t fly at first.
“I thought she was cute,” George says.
“I enjoyed the lunch,” Erika says.
They agreed on a second date, which happened to be Valentine’s Day. George brought an unusual gift — flowers and drill bits.
In one of their early conversations, Erika told him that she received a drill as a Christmas gift but couldn’t use it because it didn’t come with drill bits.
The drill bits were funny and touching, Erika says. “I knew he was listening to what I was saying,” she says.
The more time they spent together, the more they felt they were a match.
On the surface, they have differences. George is conservative. He voted for George W. Bush. Erika is liberal. She voted for John Kerry. George is a SCUBA instructor. Erika rarely gets in the water.
But at the core, they have a lot in common. They both have independent personalities and enjoy traveling to new places. They prefer entertaining at home rather than going out to bars or clubs.
“For us, it’s been very comfortable,” George says. “The word we use more than any other is ‘easy.’ ”
Popping the question
In September, right before an East Coast trip together, George proposed. They were married in March in Dearborn. Marriage has made their lives better, they say.
“I have someone to share my day with,” George says.
“Share your life with, really,” Erika adds.
Without the Internet, they say they never would have met. They frequently encourage single friends and family to register online.
Their advice about Internet dating: Sign up, fill out the profile honestly and take the time to thoughtfully consider your matches.
Internet dating isn’t an act of desperation, George says. It’s a realization that you might not randomly stumble across your future husband or wife.
“For 34 1/2 years, Ms. Right had not fallen out of the sky and landed in my lap,” he says. “Maybe, waiting for it wasn’t the right thing.”
(info By Joe Guy Collier from http://www.freep.com/features/living/netlove20e_20050720.htm)