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The rapid rate of change in the technology industry continues to revolutionize the world of dating. Remember the early internet days when the idea of meeting total strangers online was something that your friends and family frowned upon? Is it even possible to remember a time when dating apps like Tinder didn’t exist? Or a time when we didn’t use social media to connect with each other on a daily basis?
In today’s world, it is the metaverse and artificial intelligence that are having the biggest impact on how we date, as well as how we use social media.
Just how social will the future of dating be?
When Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook jumped aboard the metaverse bandwagon back in 2021, they all but guaranteed that the metaverse would be part and parcel of how we meet and interact with others online in the future. While Facebook’s initial metaverse ambitions seem to have been temporarily put on pause as the company figures out how it can monetize the metaverse, there are plenty of apps and websites that are putting metaverse technology to work for dating purposes.
For example, some have suggested that we’ll eventually fall in love with virtual avatars in virtual worlds rather than real people in real life. We’ll crave the idea of meeting our potential significant others in exotic metaverse locales rather than meeting them at real-world coffee shops or bars. In fact, one company claims that it can now create “replicas” to keep people from being lonely. What’s the real difference, after all, between corresponding with a real human via Zoom or a fake “replica” via a mobile app?
AI and dating
The latest technological wrinkle has been the introduction of AI into the dating world. There are now AI-powered algorithms that claim to have tremendous insight into who we date and why. No more filling out elaborate questionnaires, or going in for in-person interviews with potential matchmakers. Instead, AI can analyze our very keystrokes to see what we really think, and whom we really find attractive.
With the popularity of ChatGPT, it’s easy to see how AI technology is going to become even more popular as a way of finding and wooing your perfect match. For example, one app claims that it can analyze a week’s worth of your voice conversations to find out what really makes you tick. And other apps claim that they can learn from every like, every follow, and every interaction you make on social media to find your perfect match. So get ready for the future, in which AI-powered apps and programs know you better than you know yourself.
Social or anti-social?
While some of these dating solutions might sound a bit dystopian, are they really any worse than the distinctly non-technological solutions that existed 100 years ago? Who wants to go back to the days when people married not out of love, but for other reasons? Or when certain cultural and social norms prevented people from different backgrounds or different social classes from getting married?
The only caveat here, of course, is that many of the dating apps of today appear to be optimized for the dopamine rush of meeting someone new, rather than for positive outcomes. And they encourage what many would have called anti-social behavior just a few years ago – such as not wanting to pick up a telephone and talk to someone when something is bothering you about a relationship.
While there are obviously important factors to consider when using technology for dating purposes, it’s hard to argue with all the different options people have today to meet the match of their dreams.
