Embarrassingly, I have to admit that I used to watch Next, that teenybopper dating show featured on MTV, where a guy or a girl has to choose between five members of the opposite sex to decide with whom who he’d like to spend the majority of the show’s running time. If you’re also into this sort of guilty pleasure, check out MTV’s new matchmaking site, NextOrNot, which brings Next from the TV screen to your computer.
If you’re familiar with HotOrNot, you’ll find NextOrNot very similar. For those who have never dabbled in this sort of superficial online matchmaking, allow me to explain a little. Basically, NextOrNot lets you view pictures, one by one, of all the site’s users who have created personal profiles. Based on their attractiveness alone, you decide whether you want to “Next” them and move on to the following picture, or if you want to hang out on their page for a bit and find out more about them. You can do all of this without registering, but if you find someone you’re interested in, you’ll want to create an account so you can add them to your “I Like” section. If said party is also curious about you, they’ll add you as well and you’ll have a match. You can shoot them an email to find out more about them, but only externally; the site doesn’t support messaging via its system yet. You can also browse users by a variety of categories, including but not limited to: sex, people you’ve “Next”ed, people “I Like”, etc. The more time you spend looking at someone’s profile, the more chance they’ll have for being voted “Hottie of the Day”. Hotties of the Day have a chance at appearing on MTV. Since the site is also a social network, you can of course beef up your profile with videos, links, more photos, contact info, and your interests.
NextOrNot.com In Their Own Words
“NextOrNot.com is MTV’s next generation dating and social connection site. You can utilize the site’s innovative interface to connect, flirt, and engage with each other while earning points for the amount of time that other users spend on your page. There is always a multitude of profiles to browse through and, for those who want more exposure, every 24 hours two users (one guy and one girl) will be crowned the Hottie of the Day. These two profiles will be featured on MTV”.
Why NextOrNot.com It Might Be A Killer
Sadly, I have to say that this site is really fun to play around on if you’re in the 17-25 age bracket. If you’re even the slightest bit superficial (and really, who isn’t?), you’ll probably enjoy NextOrNot.com. Speaking more technicially, the site is well-designed and offers a lot of features for your profile. MTV did a great job making this site as closely related to the Next TV show as possible, so it should be able to capitalize upon Next’s popularity and catch the interest of the show’s viewers.
Some Questions About NextOrNot.com
How is MTV marketing NextOrNot.com? Clearly the logical route would be to advertise while Next is airing; are they doing this? What is the site doing to reduce the chances of inappropriate or fake content? 
