On Valentines Day this year, I received a strange text message from my mother. She told me to try and win a date with Nick Goepper, a slope style skier recently crowned with the bronze medal in Sochi at the Olympics. As I looked at my Twitter feed, I saw that #iwanttodatenick was trending. Out of curiosity, I Googled his name and found an endless amount of media buzz about his search to find a Valentine.
Above is Goepper’s tweet.
In an interview with US Weekly Magazine, Goepper stated that the contest was “like a tryout.” There were no special requirements. Contestants needed to post something creative to either Twitter or Instagram to catch his attention using #iwanttodatenick.
With online dating starting to become a social norm, and with shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette becoming American women’s sick obsession, the more I thought about how we have become a generation who is obsessed with advertising ourselves and who we are.
Although Nick was the one looking for the Valentine, Entertainment Weekly posted some of their favorite videos of the girls they thought Nick should choose. The blog post included pros and cons of each girl’s video, as well as, one memorable moment.
After looking at all the contestants, Goepper finally chose a winner. The lucky winner, Annie Rogers is a biology major at Kent State. Along with a monologue on why Goepper should pick her, Rogers sang ‘I’m Yours’ by Jason Mraz changing the lyrics into her own creation. Rogers’ also created a Twitter account just so she could send her entry to Goepper.
After watching Rogers’ video along with some other girls’ videos, I noticed that although Rogers noted things Goepper liked, she also talked about herself more than the other girls. Rogers’ video didn’t make me feel uncomfortable like a lot of the other videos did. Rogers wrote in an email, “I had seen an interview Nick did before the Olympics and thought he seemed like such a sweet guy so I figured I had nothing to lose by entering the contest.” Rogers decided to sing for her video since it was something she felt comfortable doing.
Goepper and Rogers date will take place in the big apple in the next couple weeks. In an interview Goepper stated that he was excited to go on a date with Annie and hopes she will teach him a few guitar cords. As of now, only time will tell how the relationship between Goepper and Rogers will pan out, but one thing is for sure, online dating, like advertising, is here to stay.
References:
Kiesel, C. (2014, March 4). Olympian nick goepper picks kent state student for dream
date. Retrieved from http://msn.foxsports.com/ohio/story/olympian-nick-goepper-
picks-kent-state-student-for-date-030414
[Web log message]. (2014, February 14). Retrieved from
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It amazes me that even celebrities are taking advantage of the internet to reach out to others for dating. After watching Annie’s video, I was happy she was the contest winner. She seems like a genuine and talented girl who has a good personality and proved to differentiate herself from other girls. Her good sense of humor, i’m sure, won him over. It will be interesting to hear how the date went. I love it when celebrities date non-celebrities. i hope nothing but the best for the two of them!
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This is a really good and relevant post considering all of the recent hype about the digital nation and online dating. It continues to amaze me how much influence the internet has over us. Probably the most fascinating thing about it is how all of these posts sound (I’m guilty of it too) — we are all questioning this new trend but are still admitting that it is happening. I think the questions on everyone’s mind are: has it become socially acceptable? Is this the only way now? And what will happen to old fashioned dating?
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It’s becoming more and more popular to use social media to find a date. I think it’s so annoying. Go and actually talk to people. Social media makes it so easy to be brave, but being brave in person is much harder. However, in the end being brave and asking someone out in person feels much better.
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