On the occasion of Valentine’s Day, let’s take a look at the influence technology has had on the way we meet, select, and talk to potential new romantic partners. Nowadays, matchmaking has become a billion-dollar industry and there is a multitude of dating apps out there that offer more or less the same thing: easy-to-use (“swipe right”), personalized match suggestions plus messenger services. However, back in 2012, when today’s #1, Tinder, was first introduced, that kind of superficial, picture-based selection of dates had a rather dubious, frivolous reputation.
Yet, in 2022, meeting your significant other on one of these platforms has become socially acceptable and, in some age groups, the norm. A quick Google search informs us that “19% of all internet users say they are currently using an online dating site or app. Out of the remaining 81%, 27% of those say they have used one previously. This means out of 10 of your friends, 2 of them are currently using an online dating app and 2 of them previously have.” Surprised? I doubt it. Dating apps have made their way into our everyday lives, all enabled through technology.
But how does this magic work? While the interfaces are fun and intuitive there is actually a lot of complexity going on in the background to make this possible. All of them use matchmaking algorithms that rely on artificial intelligence (AI), which are largely kept proprietary. Through predictive analytics, these algorithms then rank the profiles that the user sees and by using contextual scoring, the apps try to show attractive profiles to users as quickly as possible after installing the app so that they continue to use it. Plus, many of them require the user to turn on location services in order to leverage geofencing and offer custom radius-based filtering, too. Smart, right?
However, in the world of dating apps, this is all pretty standard stuff. Yet, when we look further into the future, integrations of other (popular) technologies are becoming visible, for example, Blockchain. While many of these platforms face problems with lack of trust and transparency because by making it easy for anyone to sign up simply using an email address and phone number, fake profiles and scams are increasing. This is where blockchain technology can come in handy to increase transparency by validating user identities through face or voice recognition, completely encrypted and stored in the blockchain. Another trend that is starting to appear more and more often is DNA matchmaking since DNA is believed to be a predictor of compatibility, where people with opposite immune system genes have supposed higher romantic chemistry than those with similar genes (google “Sweaty T-Shirt experiment” by Claus Wedekind). To integrate this, apps could use popular ancestry tracking services’ APIs or they could let users upload DNA files to find matches.
With the world around us becoming faster and faster, finding time to work, stay healthy, practice hobbies and self-care is becoming increasingly difficult. And finding a life partner, or even just a partner for a night, on top of all that? No, thank you. Surely, while Covid-19 has emphasized the supposed need for online dating even more, this is a technological solution that will not go away any time soon