Progress and deadlines

Dragos, Sadeka, Daniaal and I made some progress today in organisation regarding due dates for project. More ideas need to be thought about regarding the theme and narrative of the project. Filming should be done by the eighth, in the meantime projects such as the globalisation map and the digital prosthesis argument need to be bulked up. The editing for the two audiovisual pieces will be done on the 8th. Venue preparations also need to be made concrete. We aim to have all of our ideas for exhibits down by the end of this week, so two more solid ideas is a reasonable target.

Match.com, the pioneers of online dating and the largest dating site out there. According to their "About us" page, their mission is to:

“create romantic opportunities so singles are more likely to find someone special. Over the years, we’ve learned more and more about what people want—and the tools they need to help take the lottery out of love.”

True to their mission statement, Match.com has developed lots of innovative ways for their members to meet up and get to know each other, and this might be what really sets them apart from other online dating services.

In their online features, Match.com has created fun new ways for their members to get to know each other better, beyond the typical instant messenger conversation or email. To spark relationships, for example, they’ve developed seven quick games that members can play together, including such intriguing titles as: “Romantic Rip Off,” “Gut Reaction,” “Drawn Together,” and “Name That Dance.”

However, not content with just setting the stage for meetings online, Match.com has also gone into the real world to organize what they call “Stir Events” in many metropolitan areas around the U.S. and in other countries. These events let members meet, socialize, and hopefully hit it off in a group setting.

I found a tumblr solely based on tinder and the things that can come out of it. I thought it would be good as it's basically like a tumblr version of our project. It points to some of the mishaps the idea of this "digital prosthesis" can lead to vs when actually meeting someone in person. For example one of the stories I read said that a guy took a girl home and before she got in he found out she had bed bugs.
http://tinderventure.tumblr.com/

Lost your notes?

Hi All

I have just heard from a very nice lady called Norma Parsad who contacted me to say that she has found someone's coursework and other documents on the ground area of Manor Gardens Welfare Trust (London N7 6LA ) on Monday 21 March 2016.  She doesn't have a contact name for the owner.  Has anyone lost notes? If so, please let me know and I will send you the contact details of who you can call to get them back!

Best wishes

bernadette

Niche Dating Apps

Oh and this one on niche dating apps! Here!

The Types of Guys You Meet Online

Found a funny article on the different kinds of people you meet on online dating sites- Here

Could be interesting to maybe phrase some of our interview questions around types of people met as well as bad dates to get more information?

The illustrations are also really cool, maybe we could find a way to use them in our final display?











(illustrated by liz riccardi)

Useful article?

I came across this and thought it had a useful overview of some recent research into human-computer interaction via Grindr - the article focuses on the difficulties of leaving Grindr.  Departing glances: A sociotechnical account of 'leaving' Grindr, in New Media Society published online 7 July 2014

Dangers of Tinder/Grindr

Dating apps are fun and perfectly safe and lead to great dates, happy relationships and marriage, but a new report has shown that the number of crimes linked to Tinder has increased sevenfold in the UK in the past two years.

The most common crimes reported were of violence and sex offences, including rape, grooming and sexual exploitation of children.

It’s a significant rise and only accounts for crimes that have been reported. The number of unreported incidents could make that number much higher.

There is currently a trial ongoing in the UK, where a man is accused of drugging and murdering four men he met on Grindr between June 2014 and September 2015.

In some cases, offenders have been jailed for trying to blackmail users of Grindr, which is a gay dating app while in another a man was suspected of raping a woman he met through Tinder.

Last August, Daniel Edwards and his partner Kristofer Wagner, from Gloucester, were jailed for blackmail after threatening to expose a married man they met on Grindr.

And former teacher Gary Pearce, from Sidcup in Kent, was jailed for five years last September for grooming a 14-year-old boy he met on Grindr.

In September 2014 the Garda in Ireland said officers in Dublin had arrested a man on suspicion of raping a woman he met through Tinder.

In the same year, Nathanael Foster and Adam Webb, both of Gloucester, were jailed for using Grindr to try and ensnare would-be paedophiles and blackmail them.

 Do we really know who is on the other side of the screen?

Results from Friday!

Here are the stories we were able to get on Friday when a few of us walked around campus and asked students of their experiences of tinder and online dating in general. Some of the 'horror' stories shared with us. 

1. "Met a couple online. Joined them for a drink and went back to theirs. Ended up having sex with the wife whilst the husband watched and pleasured himself."

2. "Went on my first tinder date in Manchester. The guy was chubby but looked thin in his pictures. He later called me a stuck up bitch and walked off mid drink. Worst thing is he was a police officer!"

3. "A friend of mine went on a date with a guy from tinder but took a friend with her for support as she'd never been a date. However her friend and her date ended up talking for the whole date, made out during her graduation party whilst knowing her friend was into him. She said she would no longer see the guy off of tinder but went behind her friends back continued to see him."

4. "I was invited to this guys house for dinner, however when I turned up there was a bunch of people having sex and doing cocaine."

We weren't able to get a lot of stories as we were short for time, but hopefully when we film on Thursday we can get some more from people who don't want to be on camera. 

Unfortunately the general consensus on Friday was that people either didn't have any experience using any online dating sites or they were generally good experiences. Maybe we aren't asking the right questions/approaching the right people? Hopefully filming on Thursday will be a lot more successful as we'll have more time to approach people!

As time marches on the idea of finding a romantic partner online becomes less weird and more normal. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of 18-24 year olds who use online dating has nearly tripled from 2013 to 2015.

In the video is present a couple, Steve and Sherry Liddick, who met in 1978 through a video dating service, something similar to the online dating of our times. 

Similar to online dating, video dating did not have a great reputation. According to specific research, in the early days of online dating, 52% of the users did not admit that they were  using certain apps in order to find the right match. Back in the day, using matchmaking service was seen as something unusual and the clients of these services were called "losers". Although, as the technology evolved, our attitude evolved with it. Today tens of millions of people are online dating. Pew's latest study shows that 80% of online daters in the U.S. think it's a good way to meet someone. And 62% say it helps them find better matches.

IMPORTANT! LOG REQUIRED

I'm concerned that not everyone is contributing equally to project work. Certainly, some people are not blogging.  For this reason, I am asking EVERYONE on the course to complete a LOG of their contributions to project work. You still have time to build up your contributions, if you have been a slow starter.  However, NO LOG will mean that you run the risk of getting ZERO for your project-mark so you must ensure that you provide full details of your contribution to the project. In particular, you will need to list the PRACTICAL things that you done to IMPLEMENT and realise the project.

You MUST INCLUDE THIS LOG WITHIN YOUR ESSAY, which, as you know, needs to be uploaded to the VLE on the assignment deadline date.

If you need to contact me about this, please do so ASAP.

Hey guys
filming should start this week
Can everyone go through their Facebook asking people about their experiences online
We could find some gems

Breck Bednar stabbing: Lewis Daynes admits boy's murder

Hey guys. Was doing abit of research and saw this article which highlighted the dangers on online anonymity http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-30193056

A Business Of Love

A recent report by Topeka Capital Markets finds that the combination of tough economic times, a rise in the number of singles, social media and mobile technology is causing a resurgence in the "fast food dating" business of online personals.

Since 2014, online dating sites are generating more revenue than online pornography, being the third most popular sites that fill the Internet after digital music and video games.

In 2007, dating sites earned about $1.03 billion in revenue, with that figure expected to grow to $2.5 billion in 2017. These projections are based on the continued integration of the digital world into everyday life.

Match.com is one of the industry's trend leaders. This site charges members £30 for a one-month membership while boasting its 30 million members. 

eHarmony charges members £40 fee per month and it has 24 million members. 

These companies recognize that they're sitting on gold mines, which is why their advertising budgets are so high. In 2014, about £300 million was spent on marketing for online dating service websites. The result of spending is seen on the company's bottom line. It's estimated that some 30 million internet users will visit an online dating site at least once a month.

16/03/2016- Meeting

• Book camera & recorder: 21st-25th March 2016
• Find people to interview- 3 decent ones & see who's online dated, etc. 
• Questions?
• Have you ever tried online dating?
• Why?
• What's the difference from meeting someone online as opposed to in real life?
• What apps have you used?
• Why?
• What were your experiences of online dating? 
• Telephone box pop up- people submit anonymous stories- Friday 18/03/2016 11am
• Everyone available please come!
• Anonymous stories read through a computer
• Social media- extension of self online? What new digital world means for humanity.
• Politics of why? How social media has changed everyday life/perceptions of people
• Globalisation- traditional angle, just new perspective? Look how technology has opened up old platforms 
• St. James Hatchem Church? Room booking 
• QR Code to blog post of specific piece 
• Films of the future? - (i.e. Her) 

Presentation ideas

- The Internet has no borders - the globalisation of Internet dating
- Hyper-real lonely hearts adverts
- Documentary on online dating/experiences
- Computer reading anonymous stories
- Camera angles/filming of the stories
- Phone box idea - confessions/side blog for anonymous stories
- How to: best tinder profiles - displayed as a blueprint
- Addiction to online dating/swiping has become addicted 
- Survey general public - quantitative data
- Dead dating profiles
- The art of conversation

Developed rational

Our project is titled Matched? Virtual and Material Reality. We aim to look at the importance of online identity in the modern day by focusing on the topic of internet dating. In the news there are often stories pertaining to the dangers of online dating due to things such as fake identities. We will also look at the fall-out from bad/negative online dates conducted through interviews of people telling us their experiences and how/why when meeting up in person the date fell through, or why people felt the need to conceal certain aspects of themselves. We will create a documentary style film, showing the realities of online dating and the human side of the topic. Finally, we will include a collage of stories and experiences highlighting the dangers of online dating. This is relevant to this day as statistics suggest that the use of online dating sites by young adults has tripled since 2013. Our overall aim for this project is to bring to light the real disasters of online dating, from incompatible matches to the actual dangers of internet dating.  Using this as an interactive piece, we will then build around this work with pieces highlighting the philosophical implications of dating systems and what this means in the context of 'post humanity', tying the project together in challenging what this new form of social interaction has come to symbolise for us on a social, post human level. 

Post-human subject, social media and consciousness

An    An angle i'd like to investigate further is the transformational nature of social media, and how we fuse ourselves with this technology not physically, but mentally through our habits. Taking inspiration from the lecture last week notably the section on prosthesis, I want to argue that social media profiles are a form of social prosthesis that we use that extends beyond ourselves into the digital world, explaining why we have an emotive response to our profiles. I feel this would link well with the first hand accounts of dating sites, providing a background as to the politics behind these interactions.

Presentation form

Hi guys,

After reading the coverage on the piece 'Face to Facebook', I think using an interactive space to display our work would be the most effective method in allowing us to create drama and display a variety of angles to do with online dating. It would also allow us to contribute smaller pieces alongside the film to tie the project together, if the filming is still a possibility.

To help you firm up your rationale...

Have a look at other projects (e.g by artists) and writings which explore the value and dangers of Internet dating. For example, one really interesting project by Paola Cirio and Alessandro Ludovico collected open profiles from Facebook (scraping) and used it to create a fake dating website. The project had a lot of coverage which you can see in you search on line. http://www.paolocirio.net/work/face-to-facebook/

http://www.wired.com/2011/02/facebook-dating/

The project is currently being shown in the Bigbangdata show at Somerset House - but it's 12 quid to get in to see the show s you can read about it here for free.

Also have a look at Google Scholar to check out some of the recent work that has been done in Internet dating - everything from its psychological impacts to the use of the dating model in business and religious contexts!

What you need to work on more though is the appearance of the project - how is it dramatising itself in public space?

Buzzfeed online dating stories

Buzzfeed's Worst Online Dating Stories

This is pretty funny (or disturbing? still can't really make up my mind, probably a bit of both). But definitely relevant to our final project. I reckon we should try and make a place where people could anonymously send in their horrible online dating stories if they don't want to tell them personally, then we could get a better range, and one of us could just read them out on camera. This way we'd get a bigger mix of people?

Meeting this week

When are people free to meet this week to write up our rationale? I'm free pretty much all day tomorrow and Thursday?

Marx on Tinder-

Just had a seminar for Modern Political Theory and Saul was talking about Marx and what his take would be on online dating, thought it could be interesting/relevant to our project:

Worker alienated from fellow man- forced to engage in Hobbesian force of competition, must treat others as competitor, threat, or as something to be used. Tinder- ‘dating market’ completely superficial, person swipes yes/no. Person is turning self into commodity? Marx’s point of view- effect on money on romantic relationship, would regard online dating as deeply problematic, emerging capitalism into everyday life. 

The Smartphone Love Industry

I have found this video on ViceNews.  It shows off how mobile dating apps have become a part of our life, of how different our life is today compared to our parents' life 20 years ago.
The smartphone has become a crucial part in today's relationships, it facilitates far more connections than real world interaction ever allowed.

The smartphone has become the crucial link in modern relationships, it facilitates far more connections than real world interaction ever allowed- from dating app geniuses who use data and game theory to hack the system, to the darker side of digital love, where app addiction runs  and users find themselves endlessly swiping in an empty search for more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9V3fLUSQFM

Addicted to Dating Apps | BBC Newsbeat

"Do you really think you'll find love on a dating app?"

The dangers of online dating

I found this article on a man who raped 5 women through match.com. I thought it was good for highlighting the dangers of online dating and how vulnerable we can make ourselves when putting our information out online but also how we can manipulate our personal information.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/12180691/Match.com-rapist-Sexual-predator-guilty-of-attacking-five-women-from-dating-site.html

Louis Theroux documentary

The Louis Theroux documentary on Thai brides that was mentioned earlier today in class. Not the best quality but it's also on Netflix if people have an account and want to give it a watch! 

Rationale Draft

Our project is titled Matched? Virtual and Material Reality. We aim to look at the importance of online identity in the modern day by focusing on the topic of internet dating. In the news there are often stories pertaining to the dangers of online dating due to things such as fake identities. We will also look at the fall-out from bad/negative online dates conducted through interviews of people telling us their experiences and how/why when meeting up in person the date fell through, or why people felt the need to conceal certain aspects of themselves. We will create a spoof advert for a dating site, showing the realities of online dating. Finally, we will include a collage of stories and experiences highlighting the dangers of online dating. This is relevant to this day as statistics suggest that the use of online dating sites by young adults has tripled since 2013. Our overall aim for this project is to bring to light the real disasters of online dating, from incompatible matches to the actual dangers of internet dating.  

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I realised we still done have a project name, any suggestions of things to add or whatever I missed out? 

Meet up idea storm

Meet up Thursday 03/03/2016

Points of discussion:

Aliases 

Anonymity online: A force for good?

Ashley Maddision

Social media

Foucalts panopticon

Fake identities: the dangers

Construction of identity- relation to the web

Online dating- Match case, interviews

How the world online has changed social interaction and the nature of trust in the 'real' world.

Presentation angles

Spoof advert for dating site

Interviews

Collage of stories

Meeting today:

Hey guys,

Is any available to meet up around 3-3:30 today?