During this summer semester as well as Networked Media, I’m also taking Broadcast Media. For one of our assignments we are to produce a short radio documentary. In order to know exactly what goes into a radio documentary I’ve been listening to a heap of ABC Radio National’s 360 Documentaries. Really cool, interesting stuff that you should definitely check out. It’s so, so incredibly clever how moods, atmospheres and entire worlds can be created just through audio.
My group is doing our documentary on ‘Digital Connections’, with a focus mainly on dating and finding love online. We’ve put the popular dating app TINDER under our microscope and have been interviewing friends, family and acquaintances about how and why they’ve used Tinder.
Amongst my friends and just generally people my age, Tinder is the norm and 100% accepted. I personally know numerous couples who have got together from using the app. However, call me old fashioned, but all this meeting people online makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Surely the best way to meet someone and see if you’re compatible is to meet them in person, right?
But as the app becomes increasingly popular, I think people become either a) more shy in real life or b) downright lazy. If you know you can ‘woo’ someone whilst being feral on your couch in your trakkies at home, what’s the point in making an effort to meet someone in person? People don’t want to deal with real life rejection anymore.
And beyond just dating, more and more people are making friend’s off Instagram and Tumblr. It seems like the norm now, to meet people and connect with them online, before making any connection with them in person.
This article from one of my favourite websites ‘Thought Catalog’ pokes fun at the app, and the frivolous nature of ‘matches’. My favourite quote is the final line;
“From now on I’ll just stick to meeting future husbands the old fashioned way—at nightclubs.”
I think I agree.
La Fawnduh
