Tinder

Monday

Katherine Dee

The demise of online dating

Have you made your “date-me doc” yet? “Date-me docs” are, per an article in the New York Times last week, “long, résumé-like dating bios” — think of them as the antidote to terse, image-reliant dating apps.  They're thus far confined to the digital outposts of startup, Rationalist and Post-Rationalist communities; at this point it would be more accurate to describe them as a specific cultural phenomenon than a reaction to dating apps. Whereas dating apps such as Hinge and Tinder are made for “normies,” websites such as OkCupid — where the term “sapiosexual” was originally popularized — or even Craigslist tended to attract a more eccentric caliber of dater.

online dating

Monday

Josie Cox

Business schools are dating apps for the super-rich

“D’you know what the acronym MBA stands for?” The twenty-seven-year-old who asked me this had a deep tan and fluorescent teeth. He may have winked, but the eye-twitch was more likely a nervous tic developed from looking at himself in the mirror so much. I responded with a look of indifference mixed with fear. “Married” — he paused for dramatic effect and demonstratively looked at my wedding ring — “but available.” I felt nauseated. I was in my first semester of business school in New York City and had so far learned how to make an educated estimate of a company’s optimal capital structure, how to make a balance sheet look balanced and how to use the word “conceptually” to sound smart in strategy class.

business school

Saturday

James Mumford

Constrained by freedom: what do post-liberals want?

Any attempt to expound post-liberalism must begin by taking a view of what liberalism is. And liberalism can be viewed as a philosophy that enshrines freedom as its foundational principle. Freedom from what, though? That is a moving target. The pioneers of liberalism, whether they be John Locke or the Founding Fathers, wanted to be free from the tyranny of the minority, that is, from power exercised arbitrarily by a political sovereign. Two hundred years later, following J.S. Mill’s disdain for the craven conformism of late-Victorian social mores, liberals realized they wanted to be free from an empowered majority. That is, even if a majority want democratically to decide gambling should be made illegal, for liberals the practice should remain legal as long as one gambler remains.

post-liberals

Wednesday

Chadwick Moore

No, dating apps should not label sex offenders

A battle pitting feminists and media against online dating app behemoth Match Group flared up last week when one of Match’s properties, the app Tinder, admitted candidly there are registered sex offenders using their service.Well, duh. Tinder, with 5.2 million active users, doesn’t perform background checks, nor should they. Of the 45 online dating brands owned by Match Group, including PlentyOfFish and OkCupid, only one, Match, a paid service, does. But activists screamed for the Dallas-based company to take action to better protect women.

dating apps