Another Blog About Technology and Dating

Within the past decade (and especially in the past five years), technology's involvement in the world of romance has become more and more prevalent.  Even within the past four years that I've been at Stevens, there has been an increase in discussion centered around dating/technology in several of my classes.  Often, it is the student(s) informing the professor of the new technologies available, and there is almost always the point in the discussion where the professor asks if we actually use these types of tools (to which there is an overwhelming response of yes followed by a very surprised professor).  However, instead of looking up information about what currently exists, I thought it would be interesting to look up where innovators are looking to take dating technology since there are only so many ways that you can make a dating app unique.  

The article caught my eye was on CNN and was entitled "Future of sex:  No touching involved."  After opening the article, I realized that it was mostly visual and its main content was in the form of a video, but it was too interesting not to include in this blog.  The article was the last part of a 4 part series (each video being about 3 minutes long).  I ended up watching all of the videos to understand the content leading up to the article that I was interested in:  essentially, the first article focused on the interviewer giving basic information about what currently exists in the online dating world (not all that different from what I mentioned earlier about the students explaining dating and technology to the professor), and the middle two articles focused on the business of dating (including interviews with people like the guy who founded Tinder) and how it's changing dating by providing interviews and stories about dates that came about with technology.  

The fourth article (Future of Sex:  No touching involved) focuses on where the notion of dating and technology is projected to expand to.  The future of love's cornerstone is virtual reality in which the user puts on a headset (such as the Oculus Rift or something similar) to engage in a romantic/dating atmosphere that is avatar-based.  Brian Shuster, the CEO of Red Light Center and one of the chief founders of utherverse (http://www.utherverse.net/company.html), explains that you can use the technology to connect with a person thousands of miles away and perform all of the interactions that you could in a real situation.  Platforms like utherverse allow for users to connect in real-life settings (parks, malls, etc) in a virtual world, and these virtual dating grounds will be further enhanced by technologies like Oculus Rift because the hardware brings a new element of sight and touch to what already virtually exists.  

Shuster predicts that advances of this nature will lead to sexual singularity, which is a phenomenon that occurs when people actually prefer to have digital relationships/sexual encounters as opposed to the real-life counterparts.  This is largely attributed to the fact that advances are being made in both virtual reality and the sense-simulation hardware, which Shuster believes will lead to a combination that creates an atmosphere for dating and falling in love that is better than without any technological involvement.  

There are many nay-sayers that specialize in studying the brain that explain that the brain knows the difference between fantasy and reality and that falling in love cannot be accomplished by simply replicating senses and not experiencing them in a real sense.  There need to be certain signals sent to the brain in a relationship that are believed to only be accomplished by real encounters.  

As a first reaction, I automatically agree with the notion that virtual dating can't possibly successfully replace real dating.  It seems like a rendition of The Sims on steroids to me, and while dating apps are popular now, I would imagine that there is a point where it needs to stop.  However, personal feelings aside, there is significant evidence to support the notion that the future of dating as described in the article is not only possible but also probable.  

Like any new product/technology, there is always a group of consumers that are 'ahead of the curve' and indulge in the product before the masses catch on.  I have no doubt that there are enough people in the world to form a community that would use the virtual reality technology and hardware once it is released.  The notion of this technology is so outlandish that I'm sure there will also be those who participate just to 'try it out' out of sheer curiosity, and momentum will only grow from here.  Although I personally am against the idea of ever using something like this, I understand that this is only my opinion and that the notion of technology/dating ending up in a virtual entanglement, although a little scary, is entirely plausible.  

http://money.cnn.com/technology/love-inc/?autoplay=1&playvid=4