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It's not you, it's your avatar.
Get ready for a new kind of data dump.
People have more choice about who to date and marry than ever before. Things like the
Internet and transportation give us unprecedented access to potential mates. So now the question
is how do you choose?
Online dating sites have been trying to take the guess work out of dating for years. Basically
they're trying to match up two people based upon shared interests. They might ask you
a series of questions to get your likes and dislikes, or give you a survey and then base
your compatibility with someone else on that.
But this does not take into account little things like, let's say your favorite book
of all time is War and Peace, but really you only skimmed it back in college. Some sites
have taken upon themselves to start looking at what they call "revealed preferences."
What's going on is they're looking at every single profile you click or breeze on by and
feed that information into a special algorithm. Now over time this algorithm gets to know
more about you than maybe you do. For example, you might not be aware that you have a thing
for english teachers, or perhaps you're subtly turned off by people who like sushi. But the
algorithm knows. It's like you've been dating it all this time. Creepy, huh? Well, just
like some people's relationship status on Facebook - it's complicated. And it's only
going to get more so.
It's the year 2050 and you're a swinging bachelor or bachelorette out on the town. Your online
dating profile now uses an algorithm that analyzes all of your online activity. What
you buy, which social media posts you like, who you follow on Twitter, where you get your
news. It has analyzed pictures of you using facial recognition and even uses your genetic
information to suggest matches with dissimilar immune systems. All you do is whip out your
super smart phone, send a message to a match in your vicinity, and meet up. From there,
things are pretty much the same as they've always been. Sparks fly or they don't.
Maybe it means that we end up changing ourselves more and more for our potential partners.
We've already got plastic surgery, but what could be next? Maybe genetic modification.
Maybe you hear she likes brown eyes instead of blue. Are you willing to take drastic measures?
Or perhaps the whole dating world just moves into the virtual sphere. Next thing you know
you've got an avatar representing you that changes over time as your partner's preferences
change.
Maybe you think love stinks, I'm not into data dating. Well, at least you'll have time
to finally finish reading War and Peace.
I got a question for everyone out there. How much data would you be willing to share, if
it meant that you could get a date out of it in the process?
Let us know in the comments. If you enjoyed this video make sure you hit "like" and subscribe
to our channel. We've got some great videos about the future coming up really soon.