Online Dating is a new phenomenon that has become more and more popular recently. We can think of four different couples off the top of my head that are in their twenties and met through an online dating website. We think that society has had a huge impact on the decisions for people to meet their significant others through online dating. The reasons for this could be the use of advertisements, movies, television, etc. Below are four examples of ways society has been affected by online dating and therefore influenced certain people to take part in the phenomenon.
Example # 1:Youtube video about Perfectmatch.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmnRqUYzhSk
Perfectmatch.com is a website that focuses on finding each person's interests and finding the perfect match for them based on the facts. We feel like this advertisement glamorizes online dating. We feel that society has become very fast paced and on the go. Also, young men and women are striving to be successful. College is no longer an option but instead a necessity. Graduate school is also becoming a necessity in order to find a successful job. Because of this, people are waiting longer to get married and focusing more on their career then finding the perfect match. This advertisement makes online dating more appealing. It shows that online dating does all the work for you. All you have to do is enter your interests and the website finds your match for you. Instantly the stress of finding your match on your own is diminished which in such a fast paced society can be seen as a perk. Although one of our group members is personally not a fan of online dating, we all identify the fact that we know mulitple couples who have found their signifant other through online dating proves that it actually does work. We believe this advertisement shows cyberculture in a positive light which is also it's hidden agenda, and second or third to people dating, and the company making money. It makes online dating look appealing, easy, fun, and successful. We do not feel anyone would witness this advertisement and think negatively about online dating.
Example # 2:"You've Got Mail" the movie
"You've Got Mail" is a movie that is based upon a man and woman who work in two completely different work environments and dislike each other. However, when they are placed in the cyber world and communicate through email their feelings for one another seem to change. Instead they become attracted to one another and see each other in a different perspective than they had before. We think this movie changes the perspective that people have about meeting people through the cyber world, when the movie came out it was earlier in the online dating era, the movie was an easy transition into conversation and thoughts of online dating because it helped to shed a positive light on this new form of meeting someone, which use to be more frowned in by society. We identify that there are many times when people feel the need to judge others based upon only one aspect of the person that they know, but this movie shows that sometimes the cyber world can give you a different opinion on people because it opens up a more open conversation where people learn more about a person, not simply one aspect. Through email, these two people saw a different side of the other person and put aside the business aspect of it. Even though they did not know it was each other, it proves that the connection through the cyber world can impact how people treat one another. It can make you more willing to understand people and learn more details about them. This further glamorizes the positive impacts of cyberculture. It makes you think of finding someone through the internet as more appealing. It makes you think twice about judging people first hand and really taking the time to get to know them instead which also makes cyberculture look more as a positive experience.
*Also, it should be noted that this movie is an updated remake of the movie, The Shop Around the Corner, a movie about two letter writing pen-pals.
Example # 3:The Bachelor/The Bachelorette television show:
The Bachelor/The Bachelorette is a reality television show where a man or woman is chosen to be the bachelor or the bachelorette and twenty five men or women are selected by compatability to meet the chosen one. For one of our group members, this show is absolutely addicting. Especially this past season of the bachelor, she was extremely interested in the choices that he (the bachelor) made and felt like she actually knew the people involved with the show. The difference between a show like this and a website to find a match is that the show actually picks who the people that are compatable with you are. On a website, you give your interests and yes the website gives you matches, but then you are able to pick and choose who you want to contact. For this show, twenty five people are brought to where you are and you are forced to give each of them a chance. We think that this is a way to glamorize online dating, but it is also presents a challenge. It glamorizes online dating because these people are able to live in exotic places and go on wonderful dates that normal couples would probualy not be able to pay for--the show represents what is impossible for most average television viewers, but what is now possible thanks to sims such as SecondLife. Although, the show is not directly online dating, it does represent the concept of being able to meet and date more than one person at more than one time in order to find the perfect match. However, the show identifies the challenge to getting to know someone so well when there are cameras in your face at all times. People on the show could be acting a certain way because they are on television and could completely change once the cameras are turned off. The show glamorizies the exotic and fantasies of people who are unable to afford dating so many girls outside of the cyberworld; moreover, it represents the reality that although the experience might be fun and exciting, that people are different when the cameras are on and off, considering many of the couples do not actually last after the show has aired.
How does this fully translate to the cyber world?
As Jean Baudrillard would point out-this show is a simulation, “it is a play of illusions and phantasms,” because it represents the imaginary world we, as viewers, have created because the show draws us in just as Disneyland draws in people who want to leave reality behind and escape into their fantasies. Instead of dealing with the real situation, that this show was created for our viewing pleasure to hype up the idea of dating multiple people and finding our true love, our soul mate, out of those chosen for us-it is simply a show that plays with one’s desires. This show is a translation of games and comics for the public, it’s enjoyable-there’s a hero, the man or woman desired by the audience for the said bachelor or bachelorette, and then there’s the villain, the one evil person among the group spreading rumors and trying to stir up trouble. We allow the illusions into our homes, and our hearts…after watching the show, many of the viewers have ‘fallen in love,’ with a cast member who wasn’t picked and then go onto the internet and write emails to the person, research the person, and in some cases begin to start dating. This show is another representation of the borders and boundaries we ourselves draw, not on a physical map, but a mental map, it shows what areas we are willing to let the lines blur in order to live in the imaginary to fulfill our personal desire to love and be loved, as well as to incorporate the drama, as Baudrillard would put it, this show, and movies are “nothing more than an immense script and a perpetual motion picture.” As negative of an analysis as this might seem, it is only identifying how these online dating movies, and popular television shows, such as the Bachelor/Bachelorette is a way of humans coping with desires and thus bring about personal satisfaction from watching the imaginary and identifying how it as much an illusion as Disneyland. Love is real, as is Disneyland’s existence, both are positive things, but there is reality behind both. This show also identifies how places such as SecondLife make it possible to have exotic dates, to play out the imaginary visually and mentally with another person, and although we, as a group, have not come across the Bachelor/Bachelorette within SecondLife, it is very possible, and likely, that there is some version of it occurring in SecondLife currently.
Example # 4:"Must Love Dogs" The Movie
This movie is about a recently divorced middle aged woman, who's sister wants her to find someone so she makes her a online dating profile on PerfectMatch.com, connecting back to our first example of online dating, showing how this is becoming popular not only through commercials, but because movies are now incorporating online dating more. These type of movies represent the development of online dating-"You've Got Mail" has developed into dating profiles and websites, we're transitioning from basic email to something more. This movie shows the crazy dates she went on but in the end she found a guy she really liked that she met through the website. Eventually she meets another guy not through online dating and gets stuck deciding between the two men. This movie is completely about online dating and shows the good and bad sides of online dating. We believe that this movie shows how successful online dating can be but also shows that it doesn't come easily (going through many dates with odd people). This movie it show how much online dating helped this woman who didn't think she was ready and was having a hard time meeting people. We believe the movie also shows how some people are not sure about online dating, which is why the woman's sister had to set up the account for her. "Must Love Dogs" shows how online dating is a casual, fun, exciting and appealing, and helps to alleviate some fears of online dating. We believe this movie portrays not only online dating in a good way but also cyberculture in a positive light because it changed her life in such a positive way by being able to get out and meet new people, it highlights how people do not always become stuck behind a computer screen, but how the internet can help enhance people's lives and reconnect them with society.
These online dating websites, shows, and movies represent how people are finding new ways to interact with each other in order to find their soul mates, they are venturing into the unknown. The unknown here is technology, which has traditionally “been a male area of interest,” and is now becoming not only a place for men to explore the world, but where “a growing number of woman [have] also take[n] interest in, advantage of-sometimes even change-the technology to meet their own requirements (Walhstrom-Backe). The internet is now for every person, it is no longer characterized by gender differences. People have become more equal on the playing field, so to say, because regardless of how many men vs. women are on these websites dating, these websites represent a development of women and men. The development is seen through “the feminine body [is no longer being] viewed as being far more permeable,” (Lupton, p.480) because female users are now using technology to their advantage, so that both men and women are a part of the technology.
Online dating is not only helping people to find each other (and help the economy), but it is also showing the development of human nature. People are now being represented as “human side of the equation,” (Oehlert, p.119) the human side of technology. Needs and desires are being represented favorably through the internet, online dating specifically, an element of cyber culture, is now being favorably portrayed in commercials, television shows, and movies. This form of dating is not only improving and representing the development of dating, but also showing societal changes of the status of men and women in the dating world. Moreover, online dating is helping people to meet other people, to get out into the world and do something more than sitting behind a computer screen. This new trend is a positive representation of technology, we no longer are picturing “a futuristic Medusa’s head of wires, blinded with technology, strapped to the ground with cables and hoses, penetrated at every orifice with the flow of information technologies,” (González, p.545) but rather images of weddings and dates, pleasure.
*A very general reference list of the sources brought up and discussed within this page can be found here.
In Raleigh, North Carolina there is a small punk band called Six Inch Voices. Many of their songs follow the same theme which includes technology and its effects on society. In particular, there is one song which caught my interest. This song is called the AIM song. In this song, it tells the story of a boy who is so addicted to instant messaging that his revolves his life around being online and checking his instant messages. This song exemplifies what many of our past readings have talked about. People become so addicted to technology that in turn they become robots, doing the same thing over and over everyday. Taking a look at the communication we are discussing and the song is talking about, AIM is one of the first text formats that allow people to communicate with each other immediately, almost simulating a conversation one would have on a phone but through a texting format. Although it simulates this phone interaction, it completely changes the dynamics, effecting one's emotions. Because the communication is not face-to-face, assumptions through that communication could be incorrect.
When this song by Six Inch Voices first came out, it was during AIM's major rise in society. As I said before, AIM was the original text communication. Now we have more ways of communication like texting with our cell phone, email chats, Facebook chat or wall posts, etc. Although Six Inch Voice’s song refers specifically to communication via AIM only, it really serves to represent society’s reliance on a span of communication texting.
Communication texting has been incorporated into many films including A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff, You’ve Got Mail with Meg Ryan, Sydney White with Amanda Bynes, and many other popular (especially teen) movies. The fact that many of these technological advances have been shown in teen movies reflects the fact that younger generations have become more and more reliant on technology in order to communicate and live out their social lives. Since texting is a quick form of communication it has allowed our society to create shortcuts. Because it is less impersonal than more formal forms of communication, it has caused the dynamic of personal relationships to change. For example, if one was trying to break up with a significant other, without the daunting idea of telling them face-to-face, they might take the “easy” road and break up over text or instant messages. As a result, they could say some things they wouldn’t have the courage to otherwise. However, this situation could be bad because they might later regret having acted differently than they meant to without the face-to-face reaction of the other person to keep them from going overboard.
Grammar itself has come to reflect these “shortcut” ways of communication in society, with quicker ways of saying “lengthy” sentences. This phenomenon can be seen in the now well-known and often quoted cell phone commercial with the line “Idk, my Bff Jill?” (See Link Below). This commercial perfectly reflects the contrast in older and younger generations, showing how text savvy the newer generations are becoming. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nIUcRJX9-o
My point basically is that these shortcut ways of speaking “Lol, Bff,Btw” have become norm in society, through this text era. How could texting morph society in the future? What will change about texting? Will there be a new way of text communication that could further these changes in our society?
Six Inch Voice- The AIM Song Lyrics
Every morning I get up and I get out of bed
I check away messages to see what everyone said,
I know it's not computer screens
I gotta' get away from this,
Hey girl, let me get that screenname
We can talk all night over AIM
and all my friends think that I'm so lame
but I don't care
cuz' i got you and I got AIM.
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Comments (3)
Mickella Simone Ross said
at 12:18 pm on Mar 23, 2009
In Raleigh, North Carolina there is a small punk band called Six Inch Voices. Many of their songs follow the same theme which includes technology and its effects on society. In particular, there is one song which caught my interest. This song is called the AIM song. In this song, it tells the story of a boy who is so addicted to instant messaging that his revolves his life around being online and checking his instant messages. This song exemplifies what many of our past readings have talked about. People become so addicted to technology that in turn they become robots, doing the same thing over and over everyday. Taking a look at the communication we are discussing and the song is talking about, AIM is one of the first text formats that allow people to communicate with each other immediately, almost simulating a conversation one would have on a phone but through a texting format. Although it simulates this phone interaction, it completely changes the dynamics, effecting one's emotions. Because the communication is not face-to-face, assumptions through that communication could be incorrect.
When this song by Six Inch Voices first came out, it was during AIM's major rise in society. As I said before, AIM was the original text communication. Now we have more ways of communication like texting with our cell phone, email chats, Facebook chat or wall posts, etc. Although Six Inch Voice’s song refers specifically to communication via AIM only, it really serves to represent society’s reliance on a span of communication texting.
Mickella Simone Ross said
at 12:19 pm on Mar 23, 2009
Communication texting has been incorporated into many films including A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff, You’ve Got Mail with Meg Ryan, Sydney White with Amanda Bynes, and many other popular (especially teen) movies. The fact that many of these technological advances have been shown in teen movies reflects the fact that younger generations have become more and more reliant on technology in order to communicate and live out their social lives. Since texting is a quick form of communication it has allowed our society to create shortcuts. Because it is less impersonal than more formal forms of communication, it has caused the dynamic of personal relationships to change. For example, if one was trying to break up with a significant other, without the daunting idea of telling them face-to-face, they might take the “easy” road and break up over text or instant messages. As a result, they could say some things they wouldn’t have the courage to otherwise. However, this situation could be bad because they might later regret having acted differently than they meant to without the face-to-face reaction of the other person to keep them from going overboard.
Grammar itself has come to reflect these “shortcut” ways of communication in society, with quicker ways of saying “lengthy” sentences. This phenomenon can be seen in the now well-known and often quoted cell phone commercial with the line “Idk, my Bff Jill?” (See Link Below). This commercial perfectly reflects the contrast in older and younger generations, showing how text savvy the newer generations are becoming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nIUcRJX9-o
My point basically is that these shortcut ways of speaking “Lol, Bff,Btw” have become norm in society, through this text era. How could texting morph society in the future? What will change about texting? Will there be a new way of text communication that could further these changes in our society?
Mickella Simone Ross said
at 12:19 pm on Mar 23, 2009
Six Inch Voice- The AIM Song Lyrics
Every morning I get up and I get out of bed
I check away messages to see what everyone said,
I know it's not computer screens
I gotta' get away from this,
Hey girl, let me get that screenname
We can talk all night over AIM
and all my friends think that I'm so lame
but I don't care
cuz' i got you and I got AIM.
You don't have permission to comment on this page.