Quote: (05-02-2018 02:21 PM)Tiger Man Wrote:
Agree but in a slightly different way. I fear the fast and steady creep of two different phenomena in to all aspects of life. The first is the sexual-socialization of any domain in which men and women happen to be together. Obviously in any mixed setting, there is a chance for sexual or romantic outcomes, but I worry about it becoming the primary or one of the major purposes of things like Facebook. Remember, several of these social media platforms were set up for other purposes and have suffered from a kind of mission creep. What's to stop other platforms and apps from introducing "dating" functions in the near future. It's all about the money, after all, and dating sites make bank. But, there have to be some areas of our life in which we can socialize without the sexual or relationship "stuff" being omnipresent.
The first of the two points made here is particularly interesting and is something I had not thought of. The sexual-socialization phenomenon you speak of is very real and is particularly detrimental, in two ways which are inextricably related.
Women, being emotional creatures, need the sort of mystique, intrigue, and excitement that meeting in a low-expectation, totally non-sexual environment provides. It needs to feel organic and not contrived. It's often been said that your woman should feel that things 'just magically happened' - this sort of story isn't possible when the expectations of something happening predates any of your game or even your first conversation.
The other point here is that if more platforms start to tilt this way, it may start giving these corporations the excuse to start punishing people who don't adopt the new platform to run their game (i.e. messaging chicks on Facebook proper instead of FB Dating) under the excuse that it's not allowed, because "we have a whole app just for this purpose - use that" and could even be considered harassment.
This is not entirely unlike what's been going on in the real world. Roosh's article 'Patricia's Smartphone' is even more relevant today than when it was written in 2013, so bars and clubs in the USA are not encouraging places to meet women of quality. White knight bartenders and bouncers are kicking out men for approaching women. Mall cops are stopping men running simple day game. Also, I know shitting where you eat is generally unwise, but the workplace did represent where around 20% of relationships started for a while. That number is still around 10-15% but falling sharply and is no longer a feasible option with H.R. around the corner, just waiting to fire men the minute their eyes so much as glance at the hot young intern (who is dressed for male attention).
So, if you have more and more dating-centric, sexually-stigmatized options, while simultaneously having less and less organic options where it's acceptable to look for a partner... it really does not bode well for the future of relationships.
Social Circle game and friends-of-friends are still the gold standard here, but I could see it being very difficult in the current and future world for someone who is very introverted, keeps a small circle without a ton of options, or someone who moves to an entirely new area for a job. The answer would still be for them to break out of their comfort zone, network, and build a circle - but the reality is that few men will do this. Instead, they'll settle for the ease of the swipe factory, which, at best, will leave them settling for a lower value girl, and at worst, leave them miserable.