On the internet, no one knows you're a manatee.
Posted on 10/22/2011 11:00:44 AM PDT by libh8er
[Dating websites distort the very core of interpersonal relations and turn love into a consumer product ]
The internet is changing the way society communicates, processes information and knowledge, and configures its relationship towards authority. Some of these developments are exciting and challenging, but in one particular sense the internet poses a fundamental challenge to the way humans interact. The following criticism and concern regarding online dating is not at all intended as a criticism of good and heartening personal stories – I, too, know people who have met their significant other through online dating.
Today, internet dating has become more or less accepted as a way of forming relationships. There has been some criticism, but it has usually been of the functional and operational kind, regarding subscription costs or users providing false pictures or information. There has been little thought or comment on why matchmaking websites might be a bad thing per se.
Online matchmaking is premised on the notion of making rational choices. It is perhaps fitting that the language of economics and business has finally – in our late capitalist society – permeated the most irrational, the most human of all areas: the interpersonal. Internet dating is like shopping at LoveMart. We watch and read the adverts (people's profiles) and – based on what we are told is factually relevant data – we then, allegedly, make a rational decision to try the product. The more choices available (ie the more popular a matchmaking website), we are told, the better for those making the choice. Yet it is these intrusions by business speak into the very inner workings of society that should be of great concern.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
If you really believe online dating is eroding humanity, then I think you need to really start looking at all the kids who can’t survive 5 minutes without texting someone else, and whose main form of communication with someone right next to them is pressing buttons rather than talking.
Online dating ain’t nuthin’ compared to how dysfunctional kids are without their supposedly-critical toys.
Filling out a resume and removing the ‘middle man’ or the ‘meddle woman’.
Very dramatic. I know people who met and married through Internet dating. I think it is a good thing. Some people are shy. Some people don’t want the games. It is not hurting anyone. My wife and I were married way before internet dating in case some were wondering.
>>> Online dating is eroding humanity
Nothing wrong with online dating. Of course you need to invest in the appropriate hardware.
http://www.welookdoyou.com/fufme/index.shtml.html
Sure, only not as much as reading the Guardian is.
Or maybe it only thins out the herd.
Same here.
Were/are match makers and arranged marriages better?
On the internet, no one knows you're a manatee.
Ridiculous. I met my husband in an AOL chatroom in 1994 and we’ve been happily married since 1995. My sister met her husband the same way, and I know of other couples as well. It’s a lot healthier than the singles bar ‘meat markets’, where a single glance determines whether or not you’ll even strike up a conversation with someone. Now THAT is dehumanizing.
horse hockey
Met my Filipina wife online 10 1/2 years ago. 2 kids later son-9, daughter-4,and with God’s many blessings (and lots of ups and downs), we’re still married approaching #10 WA. Hard to believe how fast the time travels when you get older. Also, have to mention, sorry, I used the existing pathway to citizenship for my wife. It works. It’s not that hard. She’s a proud US citizen and a conservative to boot.
Anyway, the online dating scene has exploded in the past 10 years to be sure. A little over board, who knows, I kinda think so. But God bless the happy couples who have made it happen.
selfishness and greed are eroding humanity, not dating
“Online dating ain’t nuthin’ compared to how dysfunctional kids are without their supposedly-critical toys.”
Completely agree.
Read somewhere recently the staggering number of teenage texting going on right now as I type. Wish I had the number. It’s really disturbing.
Bah! I met my spouse on the internet and we fell in love with each other through talking and getting to know each other before we ever met face to face. We married 6 months after we first met and are celebrating our 11th anniversary this weekend. His brother and his wife also met online and will be celebrating their 8 year anniversary Monday. It is no different than meeting someone out somewhere.
I think using rationality and common sense is far better than just meeting some attractive person in a bar. Families are important, solid character is important. I like the way Orthodox Jews matchmake. The families introduce their marriageable children to good kids from solid families and see what happens. If it doesn’t work, it’s fine. But how nice is it to have the person and his family already vetted for you, and you only have to see if something sparks? That seems like the correct order to do things. Having sex with someone doesn’t tell you a whole lot about how they will be in your life, sorry dudes. Think about Michael Douglas in that bunny boiling movie.
Phew, that's a relief...All this time I thought it was Eastern European mail order brides.
I know 3 different marriages that started with online dating. If that’s eroding humanity then there’s something wrong with humanity not online dating.
And at the same time, their aptitude with their toys is supposed to be evidence for how brilliant they are and how we as a nation have evolved beyond the old knowledge of mere facts & figures. Today’s knowledge workers have neither knowledge, nor do they work.
What gets me is that they’ll be in the same room and instead of talking/looking at each other they’d rather text.
Idiots.
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