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As well as regulating them, Western governments might want to actually fund high-quality, not-for-profit dating systems of some kind. Improved health for citize
by Exoristos 3y ago
As well as regulating them, Western governments might want to actually fund high-quality, not-for-profit dating systems of some kind. Improved health for citizens, lessened extremism, not to mention possibly boosted population growth could result.
- drstewart 3y agoI'd certainly be interested in the literature you have showing nonprofit dating apps reduce extremism, whatever that means.
- tompagenet2 3y agoI'm pretty sure the point being made is that people having partners helps reduce isolation which can lead to extremism in some
- autoexec 3y agoI haven't looked but I suspect that people in happy loving relationships are less likely to be extremists/terrorists than unhappy people without close ties or people in their lives to check in on their mental well-being.
- GMoromisato 3y agoI haven't looked either, but I think the correlation runs the other way: people likely to be extremists/terrorists have trouble forming happy, loving relationships. I guess the fact that we disagree reaffirms the parent's point that we should look to studies/research instead of assuming.
- ethanbond 3y agoSpoiler: it’s bidirectional. Looking for linear causality is a fool’s errand for most truly hard/persistent problems.
- GMoromisato 3y agoYeah, I can't disagree with that. But we're all fools at one time or another, aren't we?
- rightbyte 3y agoHaving kids makes you soften up alot too. Which should probably decrease the lure of war or other terrorism alot?
- bongoman37 3y ago[dead]
- Der_Einzige 3y agoWhy is the comment below mine dead? It’s truthful and factual
- autoexec 3y agoLooks like they were shadowbanned back in 2021.
- rightbyte 3y agoI guess you would have to adjust for other factors and compare within those nations. I am not claiming it is the only or even dominant factor. https://www.science.org/content/article/fatherhood-decreases-testosterone https://www.science.org/content/article/fatherhood-decreases... I think testosterone might have a big margin effect in unstable individuals.
- carabiner 3y agoRead: they need to legalize prostitution. There are curious in-between sites like Cuddlecomfort.com (for just platonic cuddling and anyone who's reported for sex work is banned), but it needs to be out in the open and regulated.
- jstarfish 3y ago"Hello Work, for Dating" would likely be a hit in more than just the west. Recruiters are just matchmakers after all.
- junar 3y agoThe Tokyo city government launched its own dating app recently. News article: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3248989/will-japan-see-more-marriages-tokyos-taxpayer-funded-ai-driven-dating-app-or-it-just-throwing-money https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3248989/will-j... Previous HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39060790 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39060790
- rendaw 3y ago> A test version will be released later this year
- nonrandomstring 3y ago> Western governments might want to actually fund [s] high-quality, not-for-profit dating systems of some kind. Improved health for citizens, lessened extremism, not to mention possibly boosted population growth could result. That's too sane! Human relationships are anathema to the profit, so what you suggest would be a disaster for capitalism and the meat grinder. Consumerism is driven by isolation, FOMO and insecurity. And without a supply of disocontented single young men, how will we feed the war machine? Slightly less cynically, one of the big factors we've found in recent research for episode 2 of "Love Isn't" [0] relates to the lack of public spaces. In the UK we've decimated parks to build shopping centres and more housing, and most of the pubs have closed. We spoke to several wealthy and intelligent UK citizens in their 30s or 40s who say they are very frustrated because dating apps are rubbish, but where do you meet people IRL now? [0] https://cybershow.uk/episodes.php?id=20 https://cybershow.uk/episodes.php?id=20
- fourseventy 3y agoYou want to put the government in control of who we date? No thanks.
- cogman10 3y agoI have to ask, how are you envisioning this goes poorly?
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y agoEasy - OP's imagining the government forces you to date people - instead of offering a loss-leading alternative to a monopoly. If you start with the presumption that the government can do nothing but be a dystopia - it's easy to imagine ways anything can end up being a dystopia.
- claytongulick 3y agoWhere there is government, there is politics. Do you think the government would be able to resist the temptation to engage in politics as it relates to dating?
- Syonyk 3y agoAs opposed to for-profit, ad-driven, surveillance capitalism companies with a demonstrated interest in short term profits and hoovering all the data they can? Yeah. I'd be willing to take that risk. Don't get me wrong. I don't think the government is a good group to do this. I just think they're a less-bad group than the usual parties.
- prepend 3y agoI have never used a government web site that was better than a marginal ad driven site. I can barely pay my trash bill and can’t imagine a dating app run by any aspect of US federal, state, or local government.
- kwhitefoot 3y ago
- skrbjc 3y agoI've thought for a while now that it is a matter of national interest that your population couples up and has children. It's immensely important for the success of a nation and it's odd that the majority of how people meet now is through data apps and that there is no oversight over these at all. They have every incentive to match you with someone you are more likely to have a short term relationship than match you with someone that will result in a successful long term relationship. This has terrible long-term outcomes for a population at a large enough scale. With all of the talk of how algorithms can affect our society through news and social media, I've been somewhat surprised that dating app algorithms have not had much attention.
- nonrandomstring 3y agoIt is socially corrosive. However, "family values" have traditionally been framed as a conservative value in the USA/UK/AUS at least. So, how do we move "love and human relationships" back into a progressive position in a time when entrenched power profits from lonliness and division?
- thriftwy 3y ago[flagged]
- Retric 3y agoUS conservatives have nothing to do with maintaining or returning to historic norms. From massive government subsidies and radical tax policies to wild spending sprees they’ve completely abandoned past stances only keeping the name. Similarly modern democratic politicians have no real connection to the glass of water theory and similar stances. Voters on each side are extremely diverse to the point there’s little universal on either side. As should be obvious from the two party system.
- Retric 3y agoTo be clear I am not saying those stances are good or bad just different. Historically heroine was legal and women couldn’t vote. That’s not part of what people mean by conservatives, it’s a modern political ideology. Similarly, Democrats stances on tariffs etc have changed through the years. They aren’t particularly tied to 100+ year old ideas either.
- nvarsj 3y agoIt's already starting to happen (see Japan). As population growth plummets, governments will have to get involved.
- roenxi 3y agoThere are more fundamental questions here of whether we want population growth. There seems to be a de-facto equilibrium springing up where wealthy countries quietly drop below replacement rate fertility and then migration from poorer regions happens. It isn't immediately clear why this is a bad thing either. It seems intuitively fair, sustainable for the forseeable future, nobody is being forced to do anything against their will. Might be a good outcome. We can't all have growing populations; given the failures of manufacturing and energy policy in the west that would just lead to war and not having enough stuff to maintain a good lifestyle. We're already having trouble treading water when it comes to lifestyles, the last thing we need is more people.
- kmmlng 3y agoIt causes lots of problems because many of our systems have been set up in times of growth and won't function without it. Take for example "pay-as-you-go" pension systems in much of Europe. Here, you don't fund your own retirement, but the current working population funds the retirement of the current retirement population. This works great when you have population growth, because you can have e.g. five working people fund one person's retirement. If the ratio moves closer to 1:1 or worse, this becomes a lot more challenging. Of course, population growth cannot continue forever, so we will have to figure this out anyway. Still, for any individual country, the smart move seems to be to stave it off for as long as possible, observe how other countries deal with it, and then implement the solutions that have actually worked for others yourself.
- iggldiggl 3y ago> Take for example "pay-as-you-go" pension systems in much of Europe. Money by itself is worthless if you can't exchange it for actually useful goods and services. So non-"pay-as-you-go" pensions cannot circumvent demography, either – if too many retirees with their accumulated capital would be chasing too little working-age people providing goods and services, you'd just get inflation and all your accumulated capital became worth less.
- evantbyrne 3y agoWhat people need are 3rd spaces where they can touch grass together. Online dating is a failed social experiment. Most women won't touch it as-is. Once men start using AI generated imagery en masse, hopefully women will catch onto it and end it for good.
- d_burfoot 3y agoI think colleges would be well-advised to create dating systems that encourage healthy relationships (keyword: healthy) between students. Students who marry someone they met at university are much more likely to become enthusiastic alumni. And hookup culture is a disaster for everyone.
- bell-cot 3y agoColleges are already too deep in stuff they can't handle with student relationships gone wrong (date rape, etc.). Pushing their names / reputations / liabilities further out there by creating student dating apps would be idiotic.
- intrasight 3y agoOne of my daughter's high school classmates created "Marriage Pact".
- bombcar 3y agoAnyone suggesting a marriage pact to you is unsubtly flirting with you.
- almatabata 3y agoAll they need to do is work towards maintaining a healthy ration between man and women in their alumni. Something around 51% male and 49% women usually causes people to form more serious relationships. When the ratio is too skewed in the man's favor, they women feel pressured to participate in the hookup culture to secure a mate (source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24693022-date-onomics https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24693022-date-onomics). With the current trend of more women graduating from university, this will probably get worse. Working towards getting more men into universities will end up benefiting women because it will probably create a healthier dating culture.
- ajsnigrutin 3y ago> possibly boosted population growth Without a financial stability and solved housing, this will be a hard one... hard to have a kid, if you have 4 roommates in your 30s. Let's not forget all the devaluing of trades and other non-college professions (where you start work at ~18, and start having kids at 20) in favour of colleges (in case of USA, with loans), slow rising careers and even if you manage to get a big enough house/apartment to put a kid in, you're 30+ by then, and having multiple kids is a lot harder.
- prawn 3y agoWhere are trades being devalued? In Australia, they seem incredibly in demand and paid well enough.
- Gormo 3y agoSure, let's put the political state in control of people's direct interpersonal relationships. What could possibly go wrong?
- Arech 3y agoRevive the original OkCupid!
- bsimpson 3y agoI can think of nothing more worth of a tinfoil hat than the government trying to control who you date.