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Sociologists have long tracked the relationship between technology and society. Each new method of communication and transportation changes the way society as a whole behaves.
It makes for a fascinating study all of its own. For example, organized religion didn’t spread on a large scale until the invention of the printing press, for instance, because that made it possible to mass-produce scriptures which could be taken by missionaries to other countries. For another example, the concept of a globally-traded stock market didn’t emerge until the invention of the transcontinental telegraph, with which information could be transmitted while it was still useful.
Technology improvements sometimes come at a price for society, as well. In our modern age, all of the improvements in communications and transportation has resulted in a speeding-up of lifestyle. We do so much more in a day than people 100 years ago could do in a week, and so it is expected of us that we keep that pace up indefinitely. For today’s young adult single is too busy wrapping up their education, establishing their career, and settling into their own lifestyle away from their parents to give much thought to socializing.
Many young adults, when asked to number their friends, can count friends from school, friends from work… and that’s it! Because we spend so much time at work, we seldom get to know people outside our workplace. Without the Internet or other means of electronic communication, our options for finding a suitable mate go back to either dating co-workers – risky on its own because of what it does to office politics – and trying to meet other singles at a local bar. Which, if you’ve tried that, you know that it doesn’t work out to well.
According to various surveys, anywhere from 22% to 48% of all eligible singles have tried online dating at least once. That’s a staggering figure even at the low range; it tells us that searching for a partner on the Internet is the most attractive option that people have found. With the new age of mobile devices, everybody has a smartphone, UMPC, or PDA at their hip. So it’s even more convenient to date online; one can post a Twitter to one’s friends group during morning break at work, check their profile replies over their lunch break, or chat on the phone with a prospective date on the subway ride home.
Beyond that, electronic communications and computer technologies have gotten cheaper everywhere where they haven’t improved in other ways. One may easily acquire bandwidth access or server space for a few dollars a month. So services on the Internet are becoming free. Only a few decades ago, dating services were pay-for-play. You would go into an office, they’d videotape you while you were interviewed for your profile, and leave a form with some stats filled out for them to match you up. This was more costly, because the labor was so much more intensive and the technology was so limiting.
Today, like many other genres of media, the dating business is grappling with the changing times and a new business model. Well, just like free ebooks, free file-sharing, and free open-source software, we have a new idea: free online dating. These services have already been up and running on many websites. You don’t pay extra to have a blog or home page, to chat, to email, or to join a forum on the Internet; and online dating is basically nothing but a combination of these activities, with a directed focus.
Like other changes in technology and society, it is first theorized, then possible, then widespread, and at last expected.
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