Comment by warp_factor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by warp_factor | Hacker News Reader

Great idea.

It is exactly my complain with dating apps: They shifted most of the dating scene online in a predefined "boring flow". It is unfortunately extremely rare nowadays that people approach each other in real life. I think there is a couple reason why that became the way it is:

- Online dating app wide acceptance made it in such a way that it became the "expected flow" through which dating occurs.

- Trying to approach people offline is now seen as more and more awkward since less and less people do it.

- I also feel like the whole #MeToo and political climate makes it more difficult to approach people of the opposite gender as more people are now worried that it could be wrongly seen as sexual harassment.

If you ask someone out in real life and they feel awkward about it, first of all you should realize that asking someone out IS kind of awkward inherently. It’s not a very normal occurrence in life. But if someone is totally weirded out by it then they are obviously not the type of person you want to try dating. It’s like a natural filter for people who can’t handle real life interaction.

Yes it should be awkward, but at least in my experience in the past this was expected to happen. And the person on the other side of the awkwardness would mostly be receptive from the tentative approach.

I feel like nowadays, because it is so much easier (but fake) online, most people simply gave up all tentative of approaching//being approached in real life.

I mean meeting people in real life still happens, but it is getting more and more rare//isolated and awkward unfortunately. I guess we live in a society where everything needs to have a well defined flow and be well codified.

It seems to me that outside of SV and the pages of hackernews, people still interact "normally". These people are called extroverts and the enjoy talking to other people, even if they are strangers. Someday I may be able to study these strange creatures, but my efforts have been hindered by their tendency to call me "weird" and walk away before I can make proper scientific observations.

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