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The Problem With Internet Dating's Frictionless Market
Hugh Pickens writes "Peter Ludlow writes in the Atlantic that the internet has turned the dating marketplace into a frictionless market that puts together buyer and seller without transaction costs. And that's a bad thing. 'Finding a partner used to be expensive, and the market was inefficient. If you lived in a large city, there were always people looking for partners, but the problem was how to find them.' But one advantage of inefficient dating markets is that in times of scarcity we sometimes take chances on things we wouldn't otherwise try while in times of plenty, we take the path of least resistance (someone who appears compatible) and we forgo difficult and prima facie implausible pairings. Another problem with frictionless online markets (PDF) is that assume we know what we are looking for. But sometimes we simply don't know what we are looking for until we stumble across it in a search for something else, says Ludlow. 'The result is often unexpected and beautiful. So it is with relationships; compatibility is a terrible idea in selecting a partner,' concludes Ludlow. 'We often make our greatest discoveries and acquire our greatest treasures when local scarcity compels us to be open to new and better things.'"
well, lets hope it's as frictionless as possible...inadequate lube leads to broken condoms and accidental babies.
AOL was the best tool for getting laid ever created. RIP.
I don't understand how this is even /. related news.
Consider the number of young readers who live at their parent's place. Or the number of more seasoned readers who might be divorced, or still single, and aren't going as much as they should.
"At a glance" seems awfully superficial, taken at face value.
BlameBillCosby.com
I actually RTFA this time, and it blew my mind!
Turns out I had the whole concept of Internet Dating wrong! I've been dating the Internet itself!
mind-gasm
unlimitless pool of choices
you're hurting my brain.
This is probably worse than my mother's dog, Chestnut, dying on Christmas eve. That only ruined the one song.
chestnuts roasting on an open fire... jack frost nipping at your nose...
Boy, someone got burned in a divorce...
A computer programmer happens across a frog in the road. The frog pipes up, "I'm really a beautiful princess and if you kiss me, I'll stay with you for a week". The programmer shrugs his shoulders and puts the frog in his pocket.
A few minutes later, the frog says "OK, OK, if you kiss me, I'll give you great sex for a week". The programmer nods and puts the frog back in his pocket.
A few minutes later, "Turn me back into a princess and I'll give you great sex for a whole year!". The programmer smiles and walks on.
Finally, the frog says, "What's wrong with you? I've promised you great sex for a year from a beautiful princess and you won't even kiss a frog?"
"I'm a programmer," he replies. "I don't have time for sex.... But a talking frog is pretty neat!"
You think so? Well you have a point when it comes to food and power. Some of the negatives are massive toilet paper usage, random blotches of talcum powder everywhere, little strips of plastic from bandaids, extraneous bobbypins in strange places, untold amounts of hair and body products in the shower, lids, even more lids with nothing to put them on, boxes of tissues, a steady stream of magazines that apparently are rarely read, random strands of hair, a collection of fabric softeners, room deodorizing thingies, pillows with frills on them that irritate you enough to wake you, electric blanket settings that are way too hot, peculiar alterations in furniture placement that means you have to re-route all the carefully placed switches and cabling just so you can have the AV on the other side of the room, junk, more junk, then no room for junk, so you throw the first lot of junk out, vases with dying flowers, continual chattering like an overdub from a reality show and maybe a complete disinterest in what you're doing. There's probably more.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!