Love’s in the Air

Warning: The contents of this article might be offensive to one certain billionaire. If you’re Mark Zuckerberg, you may want to turn back now. This *totally scientific* poll will rip into your company’s decision to go all-in on the metaverse in hopes that the masses at large will want to extend their consciousness into a virtual world for things like business meetings and socializing. Sadly for you, this *totally scientific* poll result paints a completely different picture. You’ve been warned. ;)

*Phew*. Okay. With that out of the way, let us begin.

We recently asked readers what they thought was the best way to date in 2023, and *surprise* *surprise*, an overwhelming majority of respondents selected an option that involved meeting someone in real life. You know, options that did not involve putting on an expensive headset to meet a laughably bad avatar of your potential partner.

It looks like HackerNoon readers are an extroverted bunch, with options involving real life cumulatively outweighing options that involve using the power of the interwebz. Heck, talking to strangers in public was much preferred (14%) over sliding into someone’s DMs (6%).

Sure, most readers also said they preferred dating apps like Tinder, OkCupid, what have you, (29%) but getting introduced through a friend wasn’t far behind (25%). Meeting someone from work or at a bar ranked equally based on the results (12%).

Time and time again the internet is portrayed as a gateway to meet new people (and porn. Always the porn. IYKYK). In the 2010 biographical drama film The Social Network, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is shown to have conceived the idea of the social media website initially as a way for Ivy League students to meet fellow Ivy Leaguers. In the years since then, internet dating has become more normalized (and sometimes gamified) than say.. in the 90s. But is it the sole way for people to date and find potential partners? Not really.

A 2020 report from the Pew Research Center showed that despite all the advances in online technology, only 3/10 U.S. adults have ever used an online dating site or app. Sure, you might know someone who met through the internet (some of us at HackerNoon did), but meeting someone in real life still seems to be the preferred mode of dating

Which begs the question: what the f*ck is Mark Zuckerberg even thinking? It’s true that the internet was conceived to help people connect with each other, but in its existing state, the internet can also sometimes be the reason why people are drifting away from one another. Doubling down on a technology that requires a hefty investment for paltry results is perhaps the reason why Zuck’s company Meta has been battered ever since it decided to switch gears and go heavy on the metaverse™.

Does Zuck really think that the next evolution of the internet is going to be people putting up headsets instead of Tinder display pictures? Nah, not for HackerNoon readers at least. As someone recently told us in an informal conversation: there’s only so much the internet can do. It cannot replace the sensation of love, or things like physical touch. At least, not yet.

Nonetheless, the healthier approach here would be to consider the internet as one of a number of tools in your arsenal to meet the perfect partner. It’s true that it opens up the dating pool by quite a considerable amount and who knows, you might be one of those adults who can tell their offspring of that one time you met your partner on LinkedIn or something.

And if all else fails, well, there’s always the porn.