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The Dramatically Different World of ’70s Dating Ads (atlasobscura.com)
95 points by pepys on Nov 5, 2017 | hide | past | favorite | 19 comments



For perspective on what dating and marriage choice used to be like decades ago, I recommend Aziz Ansari's "Modern Romance".

I didn't expect it to be more than a joyread, but he wrote it in collaboration with a social psychology professor iirc, and went to great lengths to do first hand interviews with many people all over the world.

It is also the most comprehensive account of the multifaceted roots of Japan's "no sex problem" that I've seen in any publication.


If I had to guess, it was Eric Klinenberg.

They had a subreddit- https://www.reddit.com/r/modernromantics/


I haven't read that, but it likely explains the depth of his new show, Master of None. It's really good and in many episodes explores relationship issues in the modern age.


this is only tangentially related but i think that the video dating services (like the vhs ones from the 80's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bomkgXeDkE) might come back in the app form. like some sort of snapchat meets tinder.


They've been back on cable TV for decades. It's how Comcast can claim "thousands more on-demand titles than satellite." They count each video want ad as an on-demand program equal in importance to a feature film.


> snapchat meets tinder

Now that is one unicorn idea, if there was one ;)


I'm unsure if you're joking, but in case you're not: Tinder actually had a feature remarkably like Snapchat for posting images that were visible to all of your matches. Was quite a neat feature when used for its intended purpose: I met my current girlfriend through it as she posted an excellent German beer that I was a fan of, so I sent her a message about it.

Of course, it was quite often used mostly for photos of male genitalia, according to my female friends. I assume that's why the feature was removed, which was a shame.


Should have kept it and introduced a "never publicly shared a dick pic" filter. I'd much rather services allowed people to do annoying/stupid stuff but then use the data to generate better filtering. There's a limit, however, and enabling photographic sexual assault probably crosses it.

Finally a real life application of the Hot Dog, Not a Hot Dog app from Silicon Valley.


This is literally what they ended up doing with it.


No, they removed it altogether.


I am pretty sure the idea people are talking about here has nothing to do with messaging and everything to do with adding video: you can tell so much more about someone watching a few seconds of them moving and talking than you can staring at a stack of photographs. When I think about "why aren't profiles on these apps videos instead of photos", only having photos feels stupid in retrospect, but apparently other people disagree.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/17/15561800/dating-apps-vide...

"The Internet is Moving to Video, but Dating Apps Choose to Arrive Fashionably Late" "Everyone wants to be Snapchat, except your dating service"

> “I’ll admit it: video is scary,” says Behzad Behrouzi, who oversees product operations at Lively, a video-based dating app. “You’re showing off so much more of yourself than if you just posted a selfie. You’re showing your flaws, your personality, the real you — and that can be terrifying.”

> Behrouzi calls video dating largely uncharted territory, but points to Snapchat’s success as an admirable model. “You’re sending videos to friends,” he says. “With Lively, you’re posting/sending videos to people you don’t know, which can be intimidating.”


I think that male genitalie pictures were reason why you cannot send pictures in Tinder chat.


What beer was it? :-)


The headline reads 'Dramatically Different', but I don't see much difference, other than the medium the ads were placed in. People don't seem to be looking for that much different these days.


Now it's all "sexy singles in your area are dying to meet you!" but I know deep down that it's all a lie.


Why "deep down"? Seems to be a pretty obvious lie.


you want to believe it on the surface?


There used to be a comic that did cartoons based on spam subject lines. This one seems relevant:

http://spamusement.com/index.php/comics/view/11


Fascinating profile. The newspaper this article talks about is basically an analog, extremely inefficient version of Craigslist.




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