"If they wanted me to watch the documentary they shouldn't have started by forcing me to sit through a bunch of unenlightening establishing shots with the name of the studio, distributor, or director over them. After the third one I walked out. What's wrong with people? Someone went to the effort to research and produce a documentary and then somebody else erected an annoying barrier to watch it."
I'm being perhaps unnecessarily facetious, but is there really that big of a difference here? This is the publication's attempt (and one may debate how successful it was) to immerse the reader in a way that a traditional layout wouldn't.
> I think most people don't actively have any way to meet single people their age, so people pretend apps are somehow a band aid for a deeply atomized society
Looking back, I wasted my most dateable years doing exactly this. I thought if I just stayed on the apps a little longer, put up with the dopamine-drip machine bullshit just a little more, I'd meet someone.
I wasn't even relying entirely on them – I attended a church, volunteered at a soup kitchen, and other things where you're supposed to be able to meet people, but I wonder if maybe I would have emphasized them more (seeking out more volunteer opportunities, etc) without the gambler's promise of the dating apps panning out "any day now."
> So often times people feel forced into online dating as one of the few "sanctioned" spaces where it's still considered okay to flirt with strangers.
This has been the story of my life. I think there is a certain type of person - physical attractiveness is part of it, but charisma is even bigger – who can "get away with" flirting in unsanctioned spaces. It's a combination of being confident enough to break taboo, perceptive enough to read subtle interest cues, and being attractive enough for those interest cues to be non-zero.
I've tried to be that person from time to time, but it almost always breaks down on one of those axes, thus consigning most of my dating efforts to the soul-crushing grind of dating sites/apps.
I'm being perhaps unnecessarily facetious, but is there really that big of a difference here? This is the publication's attempt (and one may debate how successful it was) to immerse the reader in a way that a traditional layout wouldn't.