| |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper" |
|---|
| | | The Love Monopolists | |
<
< | In Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating, Moira Weigel argues that modern dating emerged in the 19th century. According to Weigel, before the modern dating paradigm began, courtship was supervised in homes, synagogues, and other non-commercial spaces. Modern dating, she contends, “takes that process out of the home, out of supervised and mostly noncommercial spaces, to movie theaters and dance halls.” Increasingly, however, that process is supervised—supervised by online dating applications. | >
> | Dating refers to the practice of taking a romantic interest out for food, drinks, or entrainment. In Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating, Moira Weigel argues that modern dating emerged in the 19th century. According to Weigel, before the modern dating paradigm began, courtship was supervised in homes, synagogues, and other non-commercial spaces.This provided little privacy from the prying eyes of family and community members. As one observer of pre-1900s courtship rituals reflected, “privacy could be had only in public.” Modern dating, Weigel contends, “takes [the dating] process out of the home, out of supervised and mostly noncommercial spaces, to movie theaters and dance halls.” Increasingly, however, that process is supervised—supervised by online dating applications. | | | The worldwide online dating pool includes hundreds of millions of users. In the United States, approximately 30% of adults and 49% of individuals aged 18-29 have used dating sites or applications. And a recent study of heterosexual American couples found that 39% met online, making it the most common way of meeting among the respondents. Dating now not only takes places in commercial settings, but is intermediated by commercial forces. Online datings applications have become the primary matchmakers of modern society. | | | Students of this course will not be surprised to learn that there are deep connections between large social media companies and popular dating apps. The relationship between these entities is symbiotic. For example, in 2015, leaked Facebook documents revealed that the company granted Tinder, Hinge, and other popular dating apps special access to Facebook user data, even amid policy changes that excluded third party apps from this kind of access. Meanwhile, these same dating apps often ask users to build their profiles around their existing social media accounts. Social media accounts have become part of the price of admission to the online dating scene. | |
<
< | The consequences of this shady symbiosis is reflected in a Guardian article in which the author recounts her experience requesting access to the personal data Tinder had collected on her. Tinder responded to her request with an 800-page-long document, which included extensive information about her Facebook activity and other social media use. This disturbing dossier underscores the fact that online dating apps are not distinct from social media companies, but continuous with them. They are merely another appendage of the PwMOG? , charged with overseeing, recording, and manipulating the most intimate aspects of users’ personal lives. | >
> | The consequences of this shady symbiosis are apparent in the 800-page-long document a Guardian reporter received upon requesting her personal data from Tinder. The document included, among other things, extensive information about her Facebook activity and other social media use. This disturbing dossier underscores the fact that online dating apps are not distinct from social media companies, but continuous with them. They are another appendage of the PwMOG? , charged with overseeing, recording, and manipulating the most intimate aspects of users’ personal lives. | | |
The Privacy Nightmare of Online Dating Apps | | | The Indignity of Online Dating Apps | |
<
< | The way that dating apps engage users is particularly dehumanizing. The typical app has users swipe through a catalogue of thousands of other humans. Every profile is an advertisement of sorts. Users are not only the products, but also are tasked with selling themselves. Moreover, the user interface is often deliberately made to feel like a game and keep users swiping. The purpose of all this is not to help users find love, but to keep them playing the game as long as it is profitable for the company. This set up encourages users to treat others without dignity: to view dating as online shopping and fellow daters as replaceable commodities. | >
> | The way that dating apps engage users is particularly dehumanizing. The typical app has users swipe through a catalogue of thousands of other humans. Every profile is an advertisement of sorts. Users are the product—and they are also the marketers of the product. Moreover, user interfaces are designed to make the app feel like a game to keep users swiping. This set up encourages users to treat others without dignity: to view dating as online shopping and fellow daters as replaceable commodities. | | | | |
<
< | And yet, millions of people (including nearly 50% of young adults in the US!) opt into this dystopian marketplace. They share their most intimate secrets while the dating apps take notes behind the one-way mirrors of smartphones. Why does anyone stand for this, let alone voluntarily participate in it? Part of the answer, probably, involves “convenience.” Dating apps make meeting people as easy as food delivery apps make dining: users are provided with a streamlined catalogue of options made more or less instantly available. | >
> | And yet, millions of people (including nearly 50% of young adults in the US!) opt into this dystopian marketplace. They share their most intimate secrets while the dating apps take notes behind the one-way mirrors of smartphones. Why does anyone stand for this, let alone voluntarily participate in it? Part of the answer, probably, involves “convenience.” Dating apps provide users with a streamlined catalogue of options made more or less instantly available. | | | But an additional factor to consider is the deeply imbedded drive for connection shared by most human beings.The desire for emotional and sexual companionship has propelled the propagation of our species and tied us together. It is these primal and powerful drives that the dating apps prey upon. As more and more people join dating apps,and fewer meet outside these walled gardens, the potential for connection on these apps increases, and their magnetic pull grows stronger.
| |
<
< | [Word count: 999] | >
> | [Word count: 991] | | | |
|