2 Dating Brian — 23-Year-Old Guy Lets Twitter Decide His Dating Life

While many people don’t like being set up on dates, there’s one guy out there who’s not only willing to be fixed up, he wants the entire Interwebs to weigh in on his dating life. Meet Brian, a 23-year-old from Milwaukee who is using the power of Twitter and Facebook to improve his romantic prospects.

He, along with a few friends, developed Loveawake.com. Using the website — and your votes — he plans to date 30 women in 30 days, starting Monday. In fact, he’s letting you decide everything from where he should go with each girl to whether he’ll kiss her. Psst — you can also nominate yourself, or a “friend,” to go on a date with Brian.

A few things you should know going in: He’s 5-foot-11, an Emerson grad who recently relocated to New York, and certainly not a commitment-phobe: He and his girlfriend recently broke up, and Brian had been dating her since he was 17. (Cue “Awwwws …”)

Curious as to why anyone would want to let the world decide their dating destiny, we recently chatted him up to find out what’s really behind his community-fueled quest to find love.

Loveawake: What brought you to New York?
Brian: I just always wanted to move to New York, but I was in school so I couldn’t move. I went back home after college for a little bit. And I had a good time at home, but it was not what I wanted to do. There weren’t many new people, and it was like I was stuck. Anything I wanted to do, whether it was web stuff or film stuff, there wasn’t that much there in Milwaukee.

I moved to New York about four months ago — to Brooklyn — and moved in with my roommate from college. Right now I’m interning at an [ad] agency downtown.

The video reveals that you haven’t been single since you were 17. Can you tell us about your dating life?
Going way back in high school, we really had a small high school. There wasn’t really much going on there. I dated one girl. But the reason why I wasn’t in the dating world since I was 17 is because I was in one long relationship. Around the same time I moved to New York, that relationship ended. So I’m in a new city, a new situation and have not dated since I was a teenager. So all those things lumped together make an interesting story.

There are other means of meeting women. Why did you decide to do it this way?
I did dabble a little bit in online dating. I’ve got friends in the city that I know from school, but I wasn’t really meeting friends of friends. It didn’t seem like I was really branching out. I could have still continued to try the traditional methods, so to speak, of meeting girls or meeting people in general. But my friends and I needed a project, and I jokingly said, “What if I put my dating life online? What if I crowdsource my dating life?” And I said it on Twitter.

I was just kidding, but my friends took it seriously so we talked about it more — what exactly we wanted to do. We didn’t expect it to get anywhere near where it got today. Our concerns were: “Is anybody going to see this? I’m not sure if I’m going to meet anybody.” But so far, it’s been way, way, way more than what we thought. Most guys aren’t as open about their love lives. You’re putting it all out there.

Aren’t you a little afraid to put so much of yourself out there?
I’m afraid, but not for that reason. I guess I’ve kind of been pretty open with how I feel and what I think and things like that. And I’m definitely taking a risk here by putting this all online. I’m not so scared about it. For me, it’s interesting what people do with it. I’m giving part of myself up to the general public, and how they react is really interesting. I’d find it interesting if someone else was doing it, I’d follow that. And so, I’ll just put myself into the fray to see what it’s like.

So far, people are relatively positive about it, which is really nice, because you never know with the Internet. If you put something online, it could either be totally crapped on and people trolling it and people doing the worst thing they could possibly do. But, right now, I’m getting some awesome suggestions. I mean this has a chance of actually saving my dating life.

Being from Milwaukee, do you find New York women intimidating?
From what I’ve seen and what I’ve experienced, obviously New York girls are really smart, and that’s awesome. That’s a reason alone to move to New York. But as far as intimidation is concerned, I think the intimidation lies in the idea that the world’s smartest and most interesting people live in New York. Well, a lot of them do. So the chance that you’re going to meet somebody who’s really cool, really smart and really interesting in New York is much higher than meeting somebody in Milwaukee.

No doubt, no doubt interesting people are intimidating. This [project] helps in two areas: I’m getting both supported by the Internet to go out there and also have people suggesting girls. So it’s sort of like taking care of the stuff I totally suck at.

What exactly are you looking for in a woman?
I guess I don’t really know what I’m inherently looking for. It’s a bigger piece of the experiment. I could meet somebody awesome, or may meet a girlfriend out of it or maybe it could be an experience. I guess I don’t have any expectations. I’ve kept [my expectations] very low. I mean, I expect all sorts of things to happen! I expect complete awkwardness. I expect a lot of connections. When I say “I expect,” I mean I’m open to it. For this entire thing, I’m open to whatever.

But you don’t have a type at all or any qualities that just attract you to a girl?
Interesting. That’s really the big thing — interesting. I guess I could go into specifics of what I think I find interesting, but I don’t know. I haven’t had as much experience. I mean there’s just the one girl I dated. So who knows what kind of girls I like.

There’s an application that girls can fill out to go on a date with you. Since you’re pretty much open to everything, how are going to make your choices?
We’re picking randomly. Because there will be people who will apply three weeks later and want to do it and if we set everything in stone right now, nobody would be able to get a chance later.

It’s really organic. In some ways, it could be compared to a reality show, but this is trying to be far from that and go more toward actual reality. So we’re not looking for perfect situations. I don’t want it to be beautiful and “this is exactly what I dreamed of my entire life.” It should just be real.

You said that you have no expectations. But what if, after this process, none of the dates work out, or you end up with a broken heart? Would you have any regrets?
No, no I don’t think so. By deciding to do this, I kind of let whatever happens to me, whatever feelings, happen. I mean if I get heartbroken or if I don’t find anybody, it’s been an experiment.

Brian’s first official date is on July 19, but he’s still looking for more ladies to fill the dating calendar. Check out his intro video below to see if you’re the type of “interesting” he’s after.