One of my favorite lines from Steven Wright, “I put instant coffee in the microwave and actually went back in time”. I think it points out the absurdity of our own invention. We live in a world where faster is better. Who wants to wait five whole minutes for a pot of coffee to brew when you can have coffee “Instantly”. The demand for everything to be faster has spawned minute rice, instant pudding and speed dating.
I don’t think that speed dating is a growing business because it’s fun and exciting. I think it’s a byproduct of the changes to our society that we have all grown accustomed to. We accept it, like we have no choice. We have to rush because we don’t want to be single forever and our “biological clocks are ticking”. Are we being programmed to think that dating should involve “Speed”.
I know we live in a very fast paced world but the whole idea of dating is to spend time with someone and get to know them. Are we trying to convince ourselves that we can spend time with someone “quickly”? That doesn’t even make sense. How much can you learn about someone in two minutes?
And I hate to even be mocking Speed dating. In fact, I’ve been thinking about trying it myself. Probably the biggest advantage that I can see (or maybe the only advantage) is that the hosting company acts as that mutual friend. You know, the one who you can turn to and ask, “Do you think she likes me?” At the end of the session you get a list of the people who are interested. The people who you made an impression on in just a few minutes are either easily impressed or physically attracted. I honestly don’t think that this is a bad starting place for a relationship. After all, physical attraction is important and it’s one of the few things that you can tell about a person right away.
Photo courtesy of Daino_16
Very Good article.It is very possible to meet the person of your dreams very quickly as love doesn’t have a time limit on it.
[...] dating is mate-shopping at its worst, and that’s true in large part for exactly the reason Mike says it can be beneficial: it relies on screening based on instantaneous physical [...]