You got dating tips from Sex and the City. You read the book “He’s just not that into you” and you know all “The Rules”. You have a great job, above average looks and yet you are shockingly single as each of your sorority sisters has gotten married and prefer to shop ToysRUs rather than Manolo Blanik with you on weekends. Your inner circle, once full of 7 or more young and successful women just enjoying life and being single and on their own now consists of you and your recently divorced best pal. She’s always available for cocktail hour after work, enjoys taking the Cosmo quiz with you each month and still listens to you on the other end of the phone while you complain that you ‘just want someone to hang out with’, which translates into ‘Where is Mr.Right’.

So, you ask aforementioned divorcee friend to take a snap shot of you dressed in your former club clothes, but after seeing your picture which makes you look at least 5 years older, you settle on a 3x5 snapshot of you and your ex vacationing in Cabo San Lucas. You ask a coworker to scan and edit him out of the picture. You decide not to throw away his half of the picture, though you say you are ready to move on with your life. You just want to have it for target practice with darts…though you don’t own any and hardly frequent bars that might.

You create a screen name on the dating websites. You labor over descriptions of yourself that sound intelligent and confident, but not arrogant. You edit several times until you are almost convinced to date yourself, you are such a great catch and happen to have all the qualities you are searching for. You get a few hits and a few definite misses and finally a date. You email. You giggle. You fret over what to wear wanting to make a great first impression. He says he looks like Fabio, and you desperately scan the room looking for a tall, blonde haired, blue eyes hunk, you begin to think Mr. Maybe stood you up. Suddenly, someone waves at you. You see him, but know this can’t be him.

His hair is grey and stringy, thin on top. His eyes are muddy brown and his skin more wrinkled than your college khakis that sat in the nearly dirty pile for a month. Before you can turn around and run out the door, he stands up and yells your name…well, your screen name “LikeCharlotte”. You look closely and he has a red rose on the lapel of his brown, houndstooth1988 suit coat, sans the double breasted vest. You were looking for Fabio based on his description, but in reality at least the world of Online Dating on Reality TV, he looks more like Steve Winwood and no, you are not dreaming and having a nightmare.

This is just one of the pitfalls that can happen in the world of online dating as explored by the new ABC reality show, “Hooking Up”. The show follows several women as they upload, download, email and chat to find Mr. Right Now, at a minimum. Some women, like Amy, 31 from South Dakota, make no bones about looking for a husband because as she says, “I want to make babies.” Can women really find love and more through online dating? More in part two of “Hooking Up”.