You might say the algorithm made him do it. Norris Ethan White contacted Bianca Alexis Brunette in July 2014 after she appeared on his Instagram feed out of the blue.

“It was super random,” said Mr. White, who goes by Ethan. “This pretty girl popped up on my Instagram. We had zero mutual friends, but there were several little elements that made her seem like a good catch. So, I shot my shot.”

He sent her a direct message that read, “I’m sorry for the classless approach. But I think you’re beautiful.”

Ms. Brunette said that she was “very leery” when she first saw his message. She even teased him about it later on. “I said, ‘Ethan, I hope you’re not catfishing me,’ because I literally don’t know who this man is. He says he is a soccer player, but I also knew nothing about soccer.”

The two exchanged numbers and texted sporadically throughout August as Ms. Brunette was on a 21-day vacation traveling through Europe. When she returned, they met in person in September at Blockheads, a now-closed bar on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Mr. White was living in Philadelphia at the time but happened to be in New York visiting a friend.