My mom and my step-dad met on an online dating site 10 years ago. I remember at the time it was strange; no one did that! I used to tell my friends that they met each other in different ways because as a young and naive girl, I was embarrassed by it. Looking back it makes no sense… It wasn’t my relationship, but so is the mind of a 12 year old– The world revolves around you and everyone has their eyes on your next move. People would criticize individuals who found love through online websites like Match.com or eHarmony. It was just weird and sketchy! You can’t meet people in real life? You must not be very socially adept.
3 weeks ago I downloaded Tinder, an app that has gotten incredibly popular. The gist of the application is that you swipe through people in your area, either deciding that you’re attracted to them or not. You can see if you have any mutual friends or similar interests. It is exactly the concept that so many years ago mortified me that my mother would be involved in it. Making connections with strangers through mobile devices or through the internet is considered completely normal in today’s society.
What changed? Is it the attitudes of the generations? Is it the fact that our lives are so ingrained into technology that we even have to rely on it for romance? The latter would be my guess, but all I know is that throughout the years we have become much more reliant on technology for everything from schoolwork, to socializing, and even to finding our future soul-mate. The days of calling the home-phone line and having to ask for another person in the household are over.