While some early adapters were online in 1991, those looking for love couldn’t turn to dating websites such as Match.com or JDate or apps like Tinder.
Instead, would-be daters — when they weren’t being set up by friends, meeting possibilities at a bar or attending singles events — checked out classified ads.
The Exponent featured a page called Personal Talk with dating classified ads.
Ads cost $20 for three lines and an additional $8 for those who wanted to have a voicemail set up to receive messages instead of leaving their phone number or a P.O. Box address.
Technology may have changed, but as anyone who’s ever looked on an electronic dating site knows, the often-cheesy descriptions never change.
How often have you seen “beautiful on the inside as well as attractive on the outside” or “tall, well-built handsome successful business executive” in your electronic ads? Well, these came straight from 1991 pitches.
But dating wasn’t limited to Personal Talk, as the facing page featured a column called Single File with events aimed at Jewish singles. There also were advertisements for a Jewish dating service, a “young Jewish singles weekend” in the Catskills and a young professionals tour of Israel.
