In a world chock-full of social media outlets, it’s not really a surprise the world of online dating overlaps with all these channels. If you think about it, your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Foursquare accounts all give a little more insight on who you are. And online dating is about finding out enough about who a person is to commit to meeting in real life. It all seems to make sense.

I, however, have most of my social outlets on lock-down. With Twitter as my only exception, you either have to be an Internet detective to find me in the first place and then a MacGyver to actually see any of my content. I don’t want Internet strangers to see that much of my personal life. Part of it is to protect me, the other part is protecting my friends and family. What if my worst fear is true and that cute dude actually IS an ax-murderer?

Recently, one of my friends told me about this new trend in online dating requests: asking to follow them on Instagram. My initial reaction to this was “No! That’s creepy!” I suppose it’s not much different than asking to see pics though. I can almost rationalize the request – you’d get insight for what kind of food I like, what kinds of activities I do, and which places I tend to frequent the most. (Unless you ask to follow HowToWithCourtney – then you just get puppy pics.)

As someone who has a different name on her Facebook account to be more elusive in case the total lock-down and unsearchable settings don’t hold up for some reason, I find the Instagram request creepy. I don’t even friend request the people I actually date. Famously, I once had a boyfriend who was not my Facebook friend until after he left (not broke up, left, but that’s a story for another day).

If a guy were to ask to follow me on Instagram (which is also set privately, FYI), my response to him would be:

“No, you may not follow me on Instagram. You are a stranger.”

It’s premature to ask someone you haven’t met yet to connect with them on such a personal level (and no one likes a premature reaction). Any other thoughts on this? Go ahead and share your stories of anyone asking to connect prematurely with you on social media outlets.