How Tech is Changing Our Love Lives
Technology plays a major part in our lives from smartphones always being in hand through to cars that drive themselves and TVs that access the internet to find us programs to watch. Social media is without doubt one of the most pervasive examples, prominent in most people's lives. But how is tech changing our love lives? And is it for the better or worse?
Meeting people
If you ask people, many would say that meeting people is one of the big ways that tech is changing our love lives yet the figures in the UK, at any rate, are a little surprising. The State of the UK's Relationships survey last year showed that only 16% of couples between 16-34 had met their partner via an online portal and this figure unsurprisingly dropped to just 3% for those over 65.
Part of this is that there is still some scepticism attached to using online dating tools. Yet websites such as Tinder are growing in popularity. People are learning to overcome the natural suspicion of someone online as the quality and accuracy of profiles increase. These sites also make it easier to meet people who have the same interests as we do. Of course, anyone can say they are interested in say, astronomy or gardening, when they are talking to you but if they put it in a profile before they know you exist, then it is more likely to be a genuine like or interest.
Communicating with loved ones
Perhaps one of the biggest changes due to technology is how we communicate with each other. All age groups express a greater connectivity with their partner due to smartphones, messenger apps and even text messages. A huge 79% of those people believed that this ability to communicate had improved their relationship. Around 85% of people under 35 use technology to talk to their partner every day and also believe that this has a positive effect.
Sometimes this 'always connected' feeling can be a negative thing and creates the feeling of talking for talking's sake, without having anything really to say. In the early stages of relationships, people have even said they ended things because the person didn't text well or didn't respond quickly to instant messages. So it seems that as well as ambitions, long-term plans and shared interests, compatible tech standards appear to be on the list of attributes for a long-term partner.
Behind closed doors
If you mention the bad side of tech in relationships, most people will reference porn. It seems to be everywhere but this doesn't mean we are actually seeking it out. Only 23% of those spoken to in the recent report felt that online porn had damaged their relationship and nearly 20% thought it had actually been positive.
Perhaps the most worrying area, particularly regarding the youngest tech users, is the sending of explicit material of ourselves to others, so called sexting. While couples apart can use these images to sustain intimacy and have fun, others have had a far more negative experience with the birth of 'revenge porn' and the problems it creates.
After the recent fuss over the 'cheating' website Ashley Madison and its exposed client list, online cheating has been a big focus. Nearly half of those spoken to said they either had or had been tempted to cheat online, with the novelty of the experience being one of the key motivations. People also think that when things are virtual, they aren't 'real' and therefore do and say things that they wouldn't face to face.
Conclusion
Tech is a neutral thing that does simply what the user wants it to. Therefore, whether tech is changing our love lives for the positive or the negative is entirely down to how we use it.
