Personal Ads

Personal Ads are notices that appear in a newspaper that are personal (or intimate) in nature. Like the regular classified ads (buy, sell, lease, rent) and job advertisements, personal ads are found under the classified ads section of a newspaper, usually with the heading "Personal."

The most common purpose for posting a personal ad is for the possibility of romance. Both men and women advertise a "want" in terms of friendship, companionship, dating partner and a possible deeper relationship (physical and eventually, marriage).

A typical personal ad consists of the advertiser's basic personal info: age, sex, location, an e-mail address and sometimes, a telephone contact number. Real names are often omitted in the posted entry for security and privacy. Along with that are the details or descriptions of the person the advertiser wants to meet and make contact with. This part often includes preferred age range of interested respondents, gender and physical and character descriptions.

With the advent of the Internet, the World Wide Web has become an ideal medium for posting personal ads. There are that specifically caters to these personal notices. Switching to online posting of personal ads prove to be much practical, cutting down fees for classified publication which are priced either by line or number of characters. Online personal ads are tagged with a serial number, often at the end of each ad to serve as the ad placer and respondent's reference.

Still, the price restrictions of personal ads on print prompted ad placers to become resourceful, economizing on words that gave rise to common personal ad jargons and acronyms, which basically are the predecessors of today's online chat jargons. Examples are ASL (Age, Sex, Location); ISO (In Search Of); MOTOS (member of the opposite sex); MOTSS (member of the same sex); DWF (Divorced White Female); DWM (Divorced White Male); GHM (Gay Hispanic Male); ND (non-drinker); NS (non-smoker); and GSOH (good sense of humor); among many others.