Romance in the Information Age.
Quite by accident, I came across this essay at The New Atlantis that Christine Rosen recently wrote. The title immediately caught my eye, and the twelve page paper did not disappoint. Expecting a re-hash of the debate on online dating - pro or con - I was enthralled with a cogent dissertation on all aspects of technology that influenced, and continues to influence, our personal lives – often to the detriment of our achieving fulfilling relations with the opposite sex.
She calls to task the feminist movement early on, and proceeds to critique the ramifications of technological advancements on dating in our post-courting era.
From cars, to the pill, to internet speed dating, and everything in between, she covers a lot of territory–all with the caveat that we can’t go back, and must come up with something new that works. Obviously with a 50%+ divorce rate and a 40% single adult population, something is broken. Although a bit short on solutions of a pragmatic nature, her advice to the individual is sound, and her observations are astute.
With topics like, “The Modern-Day Matchmaker”, and “Test-Driving Your Soul Mate”, I can’t even decide on a quote to entice you to read. So I’ll just end with her ending: Goethe wrote, “We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful, for the Useful encourages itself.” There is an eminent usefulness to many of our technologies—e-mail and cell phones allow us to span great distances to communicate with family, friends, and lovers, and the Internet connects us to worlds unknown. But they are less successful at encouraging the flourishing of the lasting and beautiful. Like the Beautiful, love occurs in unexpected places, often not where it is being sought. It can flourish only if we accept that our technologies and our science can never fully explain it.

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