Bickering on the Internet

So as all my readers know - I occasionally do some online dating.  As I might have mentioned at one point or another - in my 'OKCupid' profile, I have a line about only contacting me if you can form a coherent sentence.  I can tell you, it might be pointless for me to have this request in my profile, because it clearly is not granted.  I've gotten feedback from a couple guys who have said a lot of women have a similar line in their profiles.

A little bit ago, I got this message.

Disclaimer:  It appears this user has deactivated his profile, so I don't have to blur all out his picture/user name.  Not that I would have done that, necessarily.  I probably would have completely and totally disrespected his privacy.  Whatevs.  Lucky for him.

Now, aside from the following:

--Yes, I do know Einstein's theory of relativity

--Even if I didn't, there's time to google it and then respond and pretend I do

--There's a big difference in knowing Einstein's theory of relativity and being able to form a sentence

I was tempted to respond with one of the above, but I didn't.  I can't help but wonder....  He clearly is put off.  Is he looking for a response?  Clearly, he must be.  Is this his way of flirting?  I'm assuming that's a negative.  However, we're on a dating network - the reason for contacting someone should, in theory, be with the purpose of starting something that could lead toward dating. So then, what, praytell, is the point?  If he saw my profile and felt annoyed by something I wrote in it, why not just ignore it and move on to the next?

This brings me to the next question - why are there so many people out there who seem to enjoy starting fights with strangers on the internet?  I see it all the time in the comments sections on any articles.  Or, on random statuses on Facebook.  In fact, I sometimes see it on this blog!  Is it that they're sad and lonely and just looking for some kind of interaction with some emotion behind it?  Or is it just natural instinct for some to bicker and it's now been moved to the internet, since that's where communication takes place these days?  Do you enjoy a spirited debate online?  Your thoughts?

Classmates.com

All this talk about Alumni Junction in my previous post raised a question for me - does anyone out there actually use classmates.com?  I don't know of anyone.  I am sure it is a reputable business.  I remember seeing a headline from The Onion which went something like "No One Has The Heart to Tell the Classmates.com People About Facebook".  I think that pretty much said it all.  Does anyone use it?  How does it compare against facebook?  Is there anything better or worthwhile about it?  I think it was, at one point, a great idea, but even if it has some selling points on facebook, it loses out on lack of participants alone.   One can reach many more old classmates on facebook.

Anyhow.  I am not trying to trash classmates.com because I know nothing about it (semi-disclaimer).  I am just curious if that's pretty much a universal sentiment....

Another Random Question

Does anyone use this new search engine? How does it stack up against google? Better? Worse? Different HOW?

Second - what did we do before we had google? When there was a question of how to cook/bake something? Where to buy something? A questionable song lyric?

All I know is that google's rise to power/popularity came just slightly after I could have really used it - when i was in high school/college and I needed to look up the answer to something. Granted, I did use it/"the internet" quite a bit for help on these matters, but not to the full extent that I can/do now.

Anyone else with me on this one?