To be honest it just increased my distaste for dating apps until I ended up binning them all off. I think the fact I’ve worked in tech startups my whole career so far has made the whole Silicon Valley ‘we’re trying to disrupt x human activity’ vibe really rub me up the wrong way, I can’t get out of my head just how much the app is trying to manipulate me using pretty much the most fundamental human instinct to shove ads in my face or make me feel bad enough about myself to buy a subscription. I know all these things will have been timed and A|B tested to the millisecond to get under your skin as much as possible because that’s the world we live in where engagement is everything and externalities be damned.
Also, is it in Bumble’s interest to match me with someone I’m actually compatible with? I have no way of proving it obviously but they likely have craploads of behavioural data on their users and tech companies are 100% cynical enough to use that to match people who’ll likely have unfulfilling relationships because that would drive engagement and that’s literally the only moral parameter these companies really have. Call me a Luddite but I’d rather keep big tech’s all-staring eyes out of my dating experience.
To be honest it just increased my distaste for dating apps until I ended up binning them all off. I think the fact I’ve worked in tech startups my whole career so far has made the whole Silicon Valley ‘we’re trying to disrupt x human activity’ vibe really rub me up the wrong way, I can’t get out of my head just how much the app is trying to manipulate me using pretty much the most fundamental human instinct to shove ads in my face or make me feel bad enough about myself to buy a subscription. I know all these things will have been timed and A|B tested to the millisecond to get under your skin as much as possible because that’s the world we live in where engagement is everything and externalities be damned.
Also, is it in Bumble’s interest to match me with someone I’m actually compatible with? I have no way of proving it obviously but they likely have craploads of behavioural data on their users and tech companies are 100% cynical enough to use that to match people who’ll likely have unfulfilling relationships because that would drive engagement and that’s literally the only moral parameter these companies really have. Call me a Luddite but I’d rather keep big tech’s all-staring eyes out of my dating experience.