Newsletter: Have Dating Apps Killed Romance?

Here’s what we have in store this week:

• A debate about love in the time of apps
• A closer look at people’s goals for dating online
• Your Sunday reading list

Valentine’s Day can be rough. But maybe it’s supposed to be. When Emperor Claudius banned all marriages in 270 AD, thinking it would encourage more conscripts in the Roman army, he soon learned that a temple priest named Valentine was defying his order … helping couples wed in secret.

Just before his beheading on February 14th, the priest left a farewell note to his friend, the jailer’s daughter, signing it “From Your Valentine.”

Almost ever since (at least for the uncoupled) February 14th has been creating unrealized expectations.

But in 1995, at the beginning of the dot com boom, something changed.

The world’s first dating website – Match.com – was launched, allowing singles to “flirt with potential matches without having to change out of their pajamas.”

Fast-forward almost three decades, and the dating app industry has exploded, with options like Tinder, Bumble, and OKCupid dominating the landscape.

But what’s it done to us, and our notions of romance?

And would St. Valentine approve?

Well … apropos of Valentine’s Day, we unearthed a favorite: Have Dating Apps Killed Romance?

Anthropologist and Chief Scientific Adviser for Match.com Helen Fisher and Tom Jacques, Tinder’s Chief Technology Officer, square off against journalist and host of the TED Radio hour Manoush Zomorodi and her partner, Eric Klinenberg, professor of sociology and co-author of “Modern Romance.”

John Donvan moderates.

Have a watch or listen.

And as always, let us know what you think.

DEBATING THE DATA: Are Dating Apps a Victory for Love?

The dating app stereotype often centers on “hook-ups.” But what’s the data say? Learn more here.

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

Have dating apps killed romance?

YES:

“Dating apps make it harder, not easier to be swept away by another person.…Because the phone demands our attention. It is always telling us that there’s something or someone that deserves our attention more than the person we’re with or the thing we’re doing now.”Learn More

Eric Klinenberg

Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates

NO:

“The drive for romance and love is one of the most powerful brain systems the human animal has ever evolved. Apps have their problems, but apps cannot, never have, and never will kill the brain circuitry for romance.”
Learn More

Helen Fisher

Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates