Cupids Dating Blog

It's ironic that the freedom technology has given us seems to go hand-in-hand with a set of blinders that make living like the social beings we are progressively more difficult. We live in a time when we can travel far past the speed of sound and are considering the step of sending a manned mission to Mars, but in which we've lost touch with out neighbors.

The pace of our daily lives is much faster, our jobs are becoming more and more specialized and our educations are becoming increasingly single-minded and focused. The consequence is that while we can hop a plane to anywhere in the word, our social spheres are becoming smaller and smaller.

It isn't really that we aren't faced with people. Most of us live in cities and are surrounded by millions of strangers. The catch is that there are so many unknowns that people become cautious, guarded and cold during most interactions. Any psychologist will tell you that feelings of social alienation are an increasingly common source of anxiety and the root of a prevalent lack of well-being.

There are already many ways technology is helping to overcome these problems. There is a wealth of free online dating resources as well as paid dating services. There is even the concept of the virtual date taking hold in some subcultures. The problem is that many people feel that these kinds of solutions, for all their potential, remove some of the magic from our conception of romance.

This new idea hitting Europe seems to focus on using technology to return some of the unexpected magic to the increasingly isolating, frantic and urbanized world in which we live. The idea is to merge social networking profiles with software that utilizes Bluetooth technology on cell-phones. Subscribers who walk into a room might receive a message telling them that another user with similar interests is in the vicinity.

The beauty of the idea is that it not only makes the social networking technology mobile, it has the potential of putting you in contact with people from areas in which you work and live. More importantly, it can act as an icebreaker between people who, in a less guarded and fast-paced world, might naturally strike up a conversation. I love the idea that someone is using technology to put some of the unexpected magic of serendipitous romantic meeting back into the world.