NY TIMES – Feb 11 – Modamily.com is a Web site for people looking to share parenting arrangements. Several other social networks, including PollenTree.com, Coparents.com, Co-ParentMatch.com, and MyAlternativeFamily.com have sprung up over the past few years. The sites present what can seem like a compelling alternative to surrogacy, adoption or simple sperm donation. As with same-sex marriage, the laws on parenting partnerships vary from state to state. Elizabeth Marquardt, director of the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values, says: “It’s a terrible idea, deliberately consigning a child to be raised in two different worlds, with parents who did not even attempt to form a loving bond with one another". “As children of divorce will tell you, it’s very difficult to grow up in two different worlds, with your parents each pursuing separate love lives that can be increasingly complex over the course of a childhood.” Others say she is missing the point that parenting partnerships actually spare a child the future pain of divorce.
Category: Outlets – New York Times
The End Of Courtship?
NY TIMES – Jan 15 – Women in their 20s these days are lucky to get a last-minute text to tag along. Instead of dinner-and-a-movie, which seems as obsolete as a rotary phone, they rendezvous over phone texts, Facebook posts, IM and other “non-dates” that are leaving a generation confused about how to land a boyfriend or girlfriend. Blame the much-documented rise of the “hookup culture” among young people, characterized by spontaneous, commitment-free (and often, alcohol-fueled) romantic flings. The problem is that “young people today don’t know how to get out of hookup culture,” Ms. Freitas said. In interviews with students, many graduating seniors did not know the first thing about the basic mechanics of a traditional date. Relationship experts point to technology as another factor in the upending of dating culture. If the purpose of the first date was to learn about someone’s background, education, politics and cultural tastes, Google and Facebook have taken care of that. A lot of men in their 20s are reluctant to take the girl to the French restaurant, or buy them jewelry, because those steps tend to lead to ‘eventually, we’re going to get married.
Debate: Has Facebook Ruined Love?
NEW YORK TIMES – Jan 5 – "Most social media tools don’t provide a human bonding experience. Meeting someone new in-person is arguably the genesis of any romance. Traditional dating sites help you find somebody new. But it isn't spontaneous or romantic. It feels like shopping online. The location-based mobile meetup app, however, offers a solution to social media that actually involves meeting people." – Joel Simkhai, Grindr.
"Online dating sites are great. But once someone else’s interests have piqued your interest, do your research. After all, you could be letting this person into your heart … not to mention your home." - Sandy Heart, founder CheckOutaDate.com, which conducts background checks on potential romantic partners.
"Social media is what I'd call a romance contraceptive. It prevents romance from happening every single day. For every moment that you're checking your Twitter feed, or your so-called friends' updates on Facebook, you're missing another opportunity to connect with somebody in real life." - David Wygant, a dating and relationship coach.
Credit Score: For Some Important Factor In Dating
When Going Solo Is Not the Goal
NY TIMES – Dec 26 – Meet at the Airport.com asks users to include the name of their local airport, the time they’ll be there or the location and time that they’ll be at any other terminal in the world. The site connects travelers with one another for friendship, love or something in between. Women who are traveling alone but don’t necessarily want to eat alone can scour Inviteforabite.com for public invitations from other female travelers. Triptrotting.com connects travelers with locals for advice and activities like bike riding in Beijing or a photo tour of New York landmarks. On Globetrooper.com, users can post a trip they’re planning and invite strangers to join. Banjo, an app for iPhone, uses location technology to facilitate spontaneous meetups while you’re on the go. Its creator, Damien Patton, came up with the idea after learning that while in an airport he missed connecting with a friend he hadn’t seen in years. Planely.com matches you with fellow airline passengers, allowing you to connect with them on the Web before you connect in the air.
Meet In A Bar: The New Dating Technology
NY TIMES – Aug 21 – Both Match.com and OkCupid, which was bought by Match last year but operates independently, are getting behind the offline idea. Match bought commercial time during the Olympics to promote “The Stir,” as it calls its gatherings. Match.com has held a few hundred events each month since May in more than 50 cities. OkCupid has organized ~100 events in New York since early July and plans to bring the idea to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and a few other cities in October. Smaller services are also offering gatherings. MeetMoi has been hosting get-togethers to bring more of its users to the same space at the same time. And Nerve, a sex and dating site based in New York, says it is working on a mobile app that will emphasize nearby events. The move toward real-world meetings follows some well-publicized studies that cast doubt on whether personality tests and data can accurately predict whether two people will be compatible. “We still use our matching algorithms,” said Mandy Ginsberg, president of Match.com. “But maybe it is slightly easier to walk into a room full of people meeting and talking.”
by Jenna Wortham
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No Scrolling Required At New Dating Sites
NY TIMES – Apr 13 – Me So Far is one in a spate of recently founded dating services that combine the power of the Internet with retro dating, with singles parties so big they are organized through Web sites, and real-life matchmakers who use Klout scores to help match couples. Me So Far costs from $20 to $30 a person. Amanda Hofman, CEO of Urban Girl Squad, a women’s networking group, said her parties are a result of the members’ desire to date through old-fashioned friendly introductions. So every few months, about 200 men and women in their 20s and 30s wear name tags and pay $15 each to sip drinks and mingle. Another dating concept being tested is Tawkify, a dating site without online profiles. Instead, Tawkify applicants submit photos and answer 10 questions about themselves. If they are accepted, a team of matchmakers interview them over the phone then set them up on a telephone date the following Monday at 10 p.m. Matches are told almost nothing about each other before the call, which is automated through a service that the Tawkify founders refer to as “Mr. Brooks,” because it seemed like a fine name for a dating butler. The company is billing itself as the first to use Klout scores, a measure of one’s digital influence, as a matchmaking metric. The higher your score, the more likely you are to be matched with someone of similar status. Hitch.me is a new dating site for LinkedIn members. Unlike most online dating sites, where users spend hours scrolling through profiles of strangers, on Hitch.me they can swiftly find someone — even someone who is in their business or social circle — then get off the site and meet.
Taking A Chance On Love, And Algorithms
NY TIMES – Apr 7 – Yoke.me, a new online dating start-up, pulls in data from Facebook and then generates matches with people from users' extended social circle, based on common interests. Sites and apps like OKCupid, eHarmony, Skout, PlentyofFish and Match.com have attracted loyal followings. But in a world where we can pay someone for lunch by tapping two phones together and stream live television over a tablet computer, the de facto model of browsing through static profiles on a Web site or in a mobile app can feel comically outdated. It may not be a problem that software can solve on its own, said Eli Finkel, a professor of social psychology at Northwestern University. “Technology is not the way to figure out who is compatible and will never be,” he said. The system that eHarmony has built is “based on years of empirical and clinical research on married couples,” said Becky Teraoka, an eHarmony spokeswoman. They include “aspects of personality, values and interest, and how pairs match on them, that are most predictive of relationship satisfaction.” While Professors Finkel and Reis question the value of algorithms, they do say that online dating is useful because it can broaden the pool of people you come across on a regular basis. But Kevin Slavin, a game developer who studies algorithms, says those sites are already starting from a flawed base. The digital personas we cultivate on Facebook are often not very indicative of who we are, he said. Rob Fishman, who helmed the development of Yoke.me, says he views the service as an icebreaker.
Dating Site for Married Couples
NY TIMES – Mar 9 – HowAboutWe, which until lately targeted only singles, has been a success, attracting ~700K date ideas. But its founders quickly discovered the commercial paradox of the dating site: The better you are at finding love for a client, the faster she signs off and ceases to pay you. “If you succeed,” Mr. Schildkrout says, “you lose.” Later this year, Mr. Schechter and Mr. Schildkrout will release a new dating portal focused on committed couples. It will seek to get them out of their routines, off their feet and on the town for frequent dates.
Keating Capital Invested $3 Million In Zoosk
NY TIMES MARKETS – Mar 3 – In January Keating Capital, made a $3M investment in the Series E Convertible Preferred Stock of Zoosk. Zoosk is available in 25 languages and has subscribers in more than 70 countries. Zoosk is Keating Capital’s first new portfolio company investment in 2012. With this investment, Keating Capital has now made private investments of $38.4M in 15 portfolio companies.
See full article at NY Times Markets
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