Tell them right away.
This way, the person doesn’t continue to believe that there is hope for romance with you and continue to ask you out on dates as a result.
Meeting someone that you matched with on an online dating site can be an exciting and yet nerve-wracking experience.
On the one hand, you are hoping that the person will connect with you in the same way that they have been doing while communicating with you on the dating site, but on the other hand, you may worry that the person will not look like they do on their dating profile photos and will not connect with you emotionally.
It can be vexing to find yourself in that position and it is possible that when you met this person, you had a number of expectations as well as fears.
However, now, the meeting has happened and you know that you are just not feeling it.
That is okay.
This is something that happens with frequency in online dating.
Although you may hit if off with someone that you match with on an online dating site, that doesn’t mean that you will hit it off with them when you meet in real life.
You most likely already knew within a fairly short while of meeting this person in real life that you just weren’t feeling it.
The person may have had the same feeling or they may have had the complete opposite.
Regardless, now that you have had this all-important first meeting and you know that you are just not feeling this person, it is best to let them know right away.
This works to the benefit of the both of you.
The person now knows that there is no romantic spark on your end and you know that you can put this correspondence behind you and move on to greener pastures.
It is never good to just ghost on someone that you matched with online and got to meet in person.
You would leave the person wondering what happened, especially if they felt as though the date itself went well.
This could lead to them repeatedly messaging you or trying to get your attention on the dating site and that will only lead to irritation and frustration on your part.
Your sense of irritation could actually pervade into conversations that you are now having with potential romantic matches and they may pick up on this.
They may be turned off by your attitude and choose to stop communicating with you.
In this scenario, you have now lost out on someone that could have connected with you in a real life date just as well as they have been connecting with you online.
This is why it is always best to have a clean slate with someone that matched with you on an online dating site and ultimately met with you on a real life date.
The sooner they know that you are just not feeling them, the quicker and easier it will be for them to move on.
If you don’t let them know, it may be harder to get rid of them because their feelings for you would only deepen.
You don’t need to wait a few days and ask them to be friends.
Honestly, do you truly want to be their friend?
You probably don’t.
You probably only came up with the prospect of asking them to be friends because you wanted to soften the blow about the fact that you just aren’t feeling them romantically.
No need to do this.
It can come off as patronizing.
It is much better to be upfront and let them know right away about how you feel.
This way, you leave the onus on them to suggest a friendship if they truly want to pursue one without you coming across as patronizing.