Get Online with It: Face the Facts

I had a very good feeling about the practitioner I was learning about online – the picture, the story, the information fit what I was looking for in a massage therapist.

         

So I went to my first appointment – and I couldn’t believe my eyes – the person I expected to meet had aged 20 years since I looked at the photo online. I didn’t quite know what to do. I definitely didn’t say anything.

         

Is it naïve to expect the picture online to look like the person you meet? This wasn’t a dating site. I was looking for a good massage. Before this I didn’t think age was an issue in a massage therapist.

         

Just for yucks I went back to the website afterwards. The picture I saw did have a few clues that it was an old shot – the hairstyle was out of date ‘80s, the focus was fuzzy, the clothes style much gone by.

         

Still, I did not know what to do, if anything about the discrepancy. But I felt bad, that as a fellow massage therapist, I had said nothing during the first session.

         

I went back for another session, and this time I got my scriblets together and decided to bring it up.

         

“Gee, you do such a great massage. I was surprised that you use such an old picture on your site. Perhaps it is time to update.”

       

Nothing like jumping right into the lake.

         

A long, frigid and deafening silence followed my remark.

“Oh you noticed that, did you,” the therapist said.

That went so well. After I drove away I parked at a convenience store to have a little private cringe. Old portrait photos online apparently are in the same category as comb-overs. Never to be noticed or mentioned. All I can say is fellow therapists, don’t let this happen to you.