No one is messaging me

[MikeW]

Im starting to think guy think Im ugly then as Ive removed any refercence to being disabled and still no one is messaging me back after Ive said hey to them.

Is there now another way of say hi to strangers that I dont know of lol?

I have to reply to this.

I'm on Hornet (sort of like Grindr, Scruff, etc.) I live in a university town (Berkeley) and am surrounded by (mostly) college age guys who have zero interest in someone old enough to be their great grandpa. I don't blame them.

Then again every once in a while I get hit on by someone. Usually, they just say "hi" or some silly nothing much which, TBH, being of a whole other generation I find totally lame.

So... recently this ZERO information and no picture profile (typical for the kind of guy who DOES hit on me) said "hi" and I replied: "Why the hell should I waste my time replying to an empty, no picture profile? Who the fuck are you and what do you want?"

This is me being friendly ... which... oddly enough... often wins them right over... perhaps precisely because it is so brazenly hostile and unexpected.

The lad replied back that his name (moniker or nom de plume) is "Chopper" (LOL!!!). He's 21 years old and "into" old people. Note he didn't say "older" (as in the "age is just a number" bull shit), he said OLD people.

"SO..." I reply, "you think I'm OLD do you??"

He thought that was funny and *immediately* asks me to send him a picture of my dick. I tell him, "There ain't nobody wants to see my old dick. I don't want to see it and I doubt you do either. So, NO F'N Way am I sending you a dic pic. Besides, for all I know you're a fat teenage girl."

To this he replied, "I'm not fat, I'm gay!"

I'm like, "Well, DUH, I should hope so, given you're hitting up old men on HORNET... but, wait, are you saying you ARE a girl???"

I could go on with this... In this particular instance, Chopper and I have been chatting back and forth for over three days now. We've actually grown rather fond of one another in an odd sort of way. I don't think we're actually going to meet up, though. He wants to cam with me and, frankly, I'm just not into it. I've tried and its just not my thing. I told him, I'm old school: A hands-on kind of guy. No cyber sex for me!!

But the point of this (if, indeed, there is a point, which, I confess, there may very well not be, or perhaps not a very good one) is I think it is best to take all this 'online dating' crap with a rather large shaker of salt. WHY take these sorts of online interactions (or even lack thereof) so seriously? As if anything that goes on in that realm has any legitimacy so far as genuine human interaction are concerned? As if HOW people respond to me (or do not respond to me) on a dating or hookup app has any bearing on WHO I am as a person?

Maybe it's because I'm so old but I just can't take any of this overly seriously. I know, I know, for you all its about finding a 'mate'. But you know... those of us who've been around for awhile found 'mates' and we didn't have apps or even the internet to help us do it. For sure, we're all going to use whatever tools are at our disposal but don't think THEY are your ONLY options. They may not even be your best ones.

I told Chopper flat out: "If you want my attention? You have to entertain me... and a picture of your dick, however delightful it may be, ultimately just isn't going to cut it."