Bicycles, Internet, and Sex
https://www.ft.com/content/2a0c3f9a-b240-11e7-a398-73d59db9e399
This article expounds the similarities between the invention of the bicycle and the internet: both have contributed to the rise of sex between strangers. Bicycles made it easier for men to have sex with women, which is why one historian attributed the increase in the average height of the French population to bicycles, since bicycles reduced the number of marriages between blood relations. Similarly, thanks to dating apps like Tinder, sex between strangers has been more commonplace. In fact, Tinder is responsible for approximately one third of US marriages, and produces 12 million matches daily.
One academic paper explores the danger in the increase in “absent ties” in marriages, due to the rise in dating sites. Whereas a larger portion of people used to meet their significant others through friends, colleagues, neighbors, and relatives, more and more people now are meeting their significant others more randomly through dating apps and dating sites. One researcher researched the effect of these dating sites and to what extent they were responsible for in breaking down racial segregation. He built a mathematical model of online connections and concluded that these networks resulted in a higher rate of interracial marriage as well as a decreased rate of divorce due to the compatibility of matches. Although this data may not be too significant since it only accounts for the last twenty years or so, it is interesting and pertains to the course.
This relates to the course in terms of strong and weak ties. Most marriages in the past were modeled by strong ties, where there were a lot of common connections and mutual friends. Now, a lot of marriages are represented by weak ties, since meeting on a dating site or app is completely random and does not depend on your mutual connections. It is interesting to see this real world application of strong and weak ties and how there is much more to a relationship between two people than a simple “strong” or “weak” tie. While having a strong tie might superficially mean a deeper connection and a better relationship, data show thats people with weaker ties actually have a more permanent relationship.
interesting!