Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration 

This week Joseph and Nathan are joined by Breanna, a Silent Generation listener who works as a software engineer for a major online dating company, to discuss online dating. They detail the early history of online dating (such as how the first person to develop a computer based dating service was a working class British woman named Joan Ball) before sharing their experiences with online dating websites and apps such as Match.com, Hinge, Tinder, Okcupid, and The League. Amongst other things they discuss how dating apps replaced ELO algorithms with Gale-Shapley algorithms, how a recent study found that NYC was the worst major US city for dating, and how Chicago attracts “coastal dating app refugees” who seek an easier dating market. 

Links:

How heterosexual couples met graph

The Mother of All Swipes by Mar Hicks

Whitney Wolfe, founder of dating app Bumble, has had quite the year. She just can’t discuss parts of it by Todd C. Frankel 

Hinge’s newest feature claims to use machine learning to find your best match by Ashley Carman

Towards a statistical physics of dating apps by Fabrizio Olmeda

The Uncanny Swipe Drive: The Return of a Racist Mode of Algorithmic Thought on Dating Apps by Greggory Narr

Not My Type: Automating Sexual Racism in Online Dating by Apryl Williams and Kendra Albert

Race and Attraction, 2009 – 2014 from Oktrends 

NYC is the ‘worst’ US city for dating by Asia Grace

River Page Grindr Tweet

Hot Gays, Body Image, & Comparison by Hellvetika 

What is the dating culture in Chicago like? Reddit post

Asian gay immigrant looking to relocate to Chicago from LA? Reddit post

Artwork:

80s-90s Japanese electronics advert shared by Kaihatsu

Recorded on 11/10/2024