There are plenty of things one could ask for after the first date, and many of those requests might be granted. Asking your date to turn on read receipts, however, is beyond the pale.
Related: College student horrified when Grindr date shows up to his dorm looking nothing like his profile pic
That’s what happened to Eric Dimitratos, a 33-year-old New Yorker who works in digital marketing. Dimitratos went viral on Twitter last week after sharing a screenshot of his hot date asking to be notified whenever Dimitratos reads his text messages.
*Goes on first date, scared he’ll ghost but instead gets this text* pic.twitter.com/3horiipUv9
— Eric (@ericd) August 14, 2019
Understandably, Twitter was horrified. “Run,” one user wrote. “This is horror film dating,” wrote another.
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A third quipped, “I ONLY turn read receipts for ppl that need to know I’m ignoring them.”
Related: Man tries sending sexy photo to boyfriend, texts it to his friend circle instead
After coming across Dimitratos’ story, The New York Post polled other millennials about read receipt etiquette. One 28-year-old said he likes his contacts to have read receipts turned on.
“After sending a text, I usually check in a few times to see if the other person’s read it, how quickly they are to respond,” the guy told the newspaper. “I time my responses accordingly. I don’t want to be putting more into a relationship or friendship than the other person.”
Others, meanwhile, are not fans of the feature. “You should be able to trust that somebody will get back to you when they can,” one woman said.
“It’s an invasion of privacy,” asserted another. “I don’t think it’s healthy for society and I don’t think it’s healthy for relationships either.”
Now, however, Dimitratos is facing another dating hurtle:
Every guy I’ve ever talked to or matched with to me over the past 3 days: pic.twitter.com/jMm3KijPjk
— Eric (@ericd) August 17, 2019
Raphael
For the first time I have to agree with others here… Is this really “news” worth Queerty!? It’s not even a creepy request, it’s just nosy.
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Ronbo
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Hussain-TheCanadian
I might be naive but I didnt understand what his date requested him to do, what’s “click on I and read the receipt”?
JED08
It’s a feature that will tell you if, and when, the recipient of your message read the message.
GLF
I think this is a generational difference…most millennials don’t have read receipts enabled because we don’t want people to see we’re ignoring them. It’s considered rude (to deliberately let someone see you’re ignoring them), while everyone can maintain the polite fiction that they aren’t being ignored as long as read receipts aren’t enabled. Boomers don’t seem to care about the distinction, and most Boomers I know have read receipts enabled. Some people do it because they use their phones for work and need people to know their messages have been seen.
AnthonyS23
A lot of people may not even realize they have them enabled, or what they are/mean (see the comment above yours).
AnthonyS23
I don’t understand why anyone uses read receipts. Expectations of instantaneous responses to casual communication are already completely out of whack with reality.
sweetnovember
I have disabled message received & read feature on WhatsApp. Sometimes I’m really busy with work and my friends and family will think I’m ignoring them. When I went silent on the app for more than one week nobody have noticed that I’m not online anymore.
Yooper
“Super creepy”? Really don’t think that classification fits. It’s more a silly-ass insecure request which was one-upped by the indiscreet sharing of the banal request on twitter. I can’t get my head around the publishing of every pedestrian moment of ones day to the social media universe.
Cam
It seems very creepy to me. The beginning of a stalkerish/abusive spiral.
Toofie
Yeah, red flag warning after one date.