Partner in Social Network - Article Example

The of the article seems to face the truth that people meet online which includes dating sites along with social networks in today`s world more and more often. He was attending friends` wedding and realized that acquaintance in public places or through mutual friends is out of date because more and more people tend to choose dating sites to find The One. It is simpler, you do not need to get out of your apartment and you can avoid someone who turns out to be a devoted Catholic unexpectedly on the third date. Internet saves our time, efforts, and even good mood by rejecting potentially unattractive candidates. So it is no wonder that many people claim that dating sites such as match.com, okCupid, eHarmony make their personal lives better. You just set the needed parameters which include age, appearance, education or race and the program reduces the quantity of those who can possibly be interesting to you. So you basically pay to get rid of all the people who will not match with you. The websites use specific sorting algorithms and make all these talks about the background of each other not necessary. The company’s goal is to stimulate “three-ways”—a double entendre that, to someone at OkCupid, means a person sent a note, received a reply, and fired off a follow-up. So when these three parameters coincide for two persons it means that a new pair of lovebirds can be created in real life. It is not surprising that the owners of the sites receive big amount of information that allow them predicting and even matching possible couples way better. Not occasionally they compare their sites with the information that can be achieved from CCTVs in pubs: people literally tell everything to each other in the places like these. The owner of the site proudly boasts his possibilities to actually regulate the process of mating. Making the author and readers inquire whether such sites can possibly influence their viewers so much: “Imagine we did a lot of research, and we found that there were certain demographic or psychographic attributes that were predictors of three-ways. Hispanic men and Indian women, say,” Yagan suggested. “If we thought that drove success, we could tweak it so those matches showed up more often. Not because of a social mission, but because if it’s working, there needs to be more of it.” So it becomes clear that such websites, and probably any websites that accumulate a lot of personal information about their users are not as safe as they seem in global sense. They are created with the help of algorithms. Basically algorithm is a sequence, system, set of the systematized rules of implementation of calculable process that necessarily results in the decision of certain class of tasks after the eventual number of operations. At writing of the computer programs an algorithm describes the logical sequence of operations. Every algorithm is in list of well certain instructions for the decision of task. Beginning from the initial state, instructions of algorithm describe a process of calculations, that takes place through the sequence of the states, that, in the end, is completed by the eventual state. Transition from one state to the following not necessarily determined - some algorithms contain elements. Therefore, it is quite clear even with minimum knowledge of mathematics that algorithms cannot be considered exact mathematical concepts. So logically enough using the data that is achieved with the help of such sites and matching people with its help provokes some philosophic if not religious disputes. The interviewee emphasizes the fact that for the business like this joining hearts is not a sentimental issue, it is the necessity so they will literally do everything to increase their profit. So logically such websites not only reflect stereotypes but they also shape them and enhance them to some extent. For instance, fifty years ago matching people of different races would be provoking and clearly not reasonable but now this is pure archaism. Another issue is countries which have a bad reputation worldwide such as North Korea or Russia, in order to make matches more adequately it is possible to limit the citizens of those countries. So the question whether it is fair, good , and worth it arise naturally. It will definitely benefit the business of the dating sites` owners. But Alexis Madrigal, the author of the article, who is a senior editor and an experienced technical writer in the Atlantic contests this principle stating that trusting this human-created statistics is non-human because: “Statistically likely does not mean correct, or just, or fair. Google-generated kadosh is meretricious, offering a desiccated kind of choice. It’s when people deviate from what we predict they’ll do that they prove they are individuals, set apart from all others of the human type”. So basically falling out any possible algorithms and acting unpredictably is what creates spontaneity, intuition, and falling in love eventually. And the author holds these romantic views that looking for the One in unpredictable places and trying to meet absolutely strange person is still attractive because it allows to preserve this magic of the world which has its moments of wonder. Like when you learn that a beautiful girl of twenty three could fall in love with an old man of seventy. And though on dating sites their age difference would prevent them from meeting in real life there are still chances. It also looks like the author is a bit paranoid about interpreting everything into a code, and it is no wonder why. People working with devices and information learn how easily it is to make a code of it and then it turns out that the world reminds the Matrix a bit to them. I have the intention not to agree to the author`s opinion about “creeping algorithms” and “statistically likely does not mean correct” because for people looking for a partner statistics is more reliable and helpful than believing in miracles. Looking for someone on the dating site (though I still have not tried this but I can`t exclude this possibility) is like visiting a small community of people who have adapted their vision of normality to their needs and to the technological progress and honestly said to themselves that their chances in real life are miserable. The reasons are numerous: kids from the first marriage, religious beliefs, age. For these people rejecting Asian candidates is not racist- it is simply sustainable. Yes, it may reduce their chances to meet someone special from Beijing but honestly the chances of such pure magic are extremely low in real life. If we are talking about the people who gave up their chance to find someone close on the nearby supermarket and they feel they need someone close, these sites are the most positive invention of the century. These people know what they want whether it is The One or it a one night stand probably because they have negative experience. This may look desperate but in the XXI century with the population of 7 billion people it is absolutely reasonable. So I believe that dating sites regardless the principle on which they were created are more useful than creepy and it is a high time to accustom to the technology which is a part of our life. Moreover, I still do not think that stereotypes created or reinforced with the help of such sites are the cause in this vicious circle of things –they are rather the consequence of real life. It is very unlikely that a nerd from Iowa of forty will lose something if the site would reduce his chances to meet a Korean girl. Cosmopolitism is attractive but most of us want someone from our native environment speaking common language. So it is all absolutely natural to hold stereotypes and pushing people to destroy their stereotypes immediately after they have been registered is foolish. Tolerance is only good when it is completely natural. And finally I also think that dating sites threat the very concept of love because humanity has passed through thousand years and witnessed impressive global changes ad people still want to be needed and the concept of love evolves. So in the world which is still based on chaos and tailored with occasional coincidents people will still fall in love randomly and unpredictability because these chaotic powers are more natural than right and linear laws of mathematics. Simply put, the power of love is more resourceful and unpredictable than any human made computer code. So for simple people like all of us worrying about the logic of the whole universe is senseless it is more reasonable to create all possible tools that will help people all over the world feel closer to each other and maybe not so lonely. That is when the life will stop reminding artificial and will not be interpreted into a code. Read More