Online dating
the revolution of online dating started more than 50 years ago, dating all the way back to 1959 where the first study was conducted. this consisted of two electronical students at standford university creating something called the 'happy families matching service' this system worked with a questionaire that had to be filled in and then constructed on an `IBM650' this study matched 49 men and 49 woman, although no longterm matches were made and efficiency needed to be improved.
it was then in 1965 that 'Operation Match' was invented, the start point for all future dating websites/apps. This was started and founded by two young harvard students who were inspired by the scarced dating scene due to post war. Using an 'IBM1401' and punch cards a matchmaking service was created, which including needing to fill out a 75 question survey you needed to mail with $3. In return, the computer generated the persons top 6 matches' names and numbers. this worked by the surveys matching with other answers to create matches with people who you had things in common etc. although, due to no internet you could not see what the people looked like therefore suppressing and physical attraction making matchmaking harder than it is now.
although, even due to this, 'operation match' had over 90,000 users.
It was 2004 where dating apps and websites started to develop more to what we have today, starting with the website 'Facebook' launching a 'hot or not' game for harvard students normalising sharing your personal dating ideas and statuses online and public. As well as this, paypal worked on developing an app called 'tune in hook up' which was where you posted videos of yourself in hope of landig a date, though this did not have much success so therefore was later changed into what we now know as 'Youtube'
Then, from 2009 the revolution in same sex dating and pairing revolution appeared creating the dating app 'grinder' which is still a popular same sex dating app today. It is said that 70% of gay american couples now meet online due to the revolution within same sex dating apps.
Then, possibly the biggest dating app was released in 2012, tinder.Tinder was origionally only released in University campus' for students to meet eachother but then soon developed to be a much more national used app which is used all over the world.
Japan and their use of virtual partners
in Japan, virtual partners replace romantic voids for some people.
an example of this is a software called 'Gatebox', a virtual character for lonely people, or in other words, 'Wife of the future'
this character can do many diferent tasks such as wake a person up in the morning, suggest to the person when they need to sleep and also say auto phrases such as goodnight and goodmorning. as well as this, the holographic miniture sized woman's software can be linked to the persons smartphone in which the hologram can send you messages such as 'I miss you when are you coming home' It is argued that this prevents human contact but others also argue that it prepares a person who may struggle with human contact with what to do when they interact with a person, like trial dates etc so that they know what to do, like a practice.
Other replacements of real-life parters are games such as the software 'voltage' where you can take your virtual lovers anywhere through your smartphone placing the person on your phone in the surroundings of where you are, like pokemon go or the snapchat filters where there is a mini bitemoji infront of you in your surroundings presented on the smartphone, and an app called 'ASCAPE' which is presented in a virtual reality on a headset.
Other examples of 'virtual reality headset; relationships is the culture of japenese men marrying their virtual reality partners, though an actual wedding ceremony in real life, in which they wear a headse to see their wife and interact with it. this is recored on a screen for the guests or ceremonial people to watch.
research has shown that the choice is what is appealing to the audiences. In these virtual reality scenarios you can choose the person and their path, meaning you have complete control over every elemet of that virtual realities life and choices. As well as this, the person is personal and exclusive to them, people state, making the realtionship more intimate and appealing.
it was also stated that 'woman have a common frustration that they cannot enjoy romantic situations like those in virtual games' suggesting that this is what is increaing the use of virtual relationships with mythical characters.
researches also state that 'Millennials are not interested in romantic relationships - describing them as 'bothersome'
Another example of Japan using this idea of creating their ideal partner is through manga, a prime example being 'Absolute Boyfriend' a mange in which a lonely girl creates her ideal boyfriend online which is then shipped to her as a life size person who only obeyed her etc.
As well as this, in Japan and South Korea beauty standards are so high due to the media industry and music industry creating a spotlight on 'Idols' such as KPOP stars making members of the public want partners like people portrayed through the media which is unrealisitc making them resort to virtual realities to fullfil their expectations of a fullfilled parter, which simulations even being created of their favourite idols such as apps where it gives the impression that you are messaging your favourite idol as if you were their actual love interest.
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