Online Dating is Changing the Global Social Network
Online dating isn’t a new invention, but its usage has risen dramatically in recent years and become a social norm. However, studying its long-term effects on society and social networks is relatively new, and evidence from sources like MIT Technology Review has been finding that online dating is adding brand-new, traditionally atypical, strong edges in the global social network.
As covered in class, large social networks are made up of clusters, or nodes with strong connections between them. This can represent a church group, small community, or major class within a university. Concepts like strong triadic closure and structural balance theory are evident in such clusters. A typical node has strong connections with other nodes in their respective cluster, and some loose ties that connect to more distant people in different clusters. These ties in particular traditionally drove relationships, as people typically look to not date their best friends and use friend-of-a-friend connections beyond their common social circles.
With the recent introduction of strong ties between clusters, whole communities are figuratively smashed together within a relationship, and their social networks become even more connected. Additionally, these marriages tend to be more stable. This could be attributed to giving people a greater number of options: they pick someone they’re more compatible with than they would find around. As Aziz Ansari touches on in the opening chapters of Modern Romance, our grandparents were almost destined to marry someone within a few blocks of where they grew up. For example, if you lived on a block of seedy dudes in 1960, you were very likely not going to be in a happy marriage.
Researchers have created simulations that visualize the long-term effects of random strong ties between clusters that were either had few loose ties or no connections between one another. The results are eye-opening: “Our model predicts nearly complete racial integration upon the emergence of online dating, even if the number of partners that individuals meet from newly formed ties is small.” While the article notes the uptick in interracial marriages is in part caused by a decrease in white Americans and thereby increased number of other races, these factors alone can’t explain the marriage trend.
Online dating is here to stay, and will likely bring us even closer together in our already hyperconnected world. Whether or not the sociopolitical state of the world is ready for that… stay tuned.
Main Article: MIT Technology Review
Aziz Ansari: Modern Romance