Virtual Natives

13Love, Sex, and Algorithms

In the previous two chapters, we looked at how Virtual Natives possess the ability to outsmart systems and services that benefit the industries that created them far more than they benefit the end user. But there is a whole other class of algorithm out there that doesn't benefit the end user as well as it could – algorithms based on outdated ways of thinking that draw on old‐fashioned categories of who people are, and who they could become.

Are Dating Apps Designed to Fail Users?

Some pundits posit that search engines like Google are designed to both help you find information, and thwart you from finding it. Why? The reason that you often don't quite find the right answer on Google is that advertisers pay to be listed on the first results page, so the best answer to your query might not appear anywhere near the top of the results. Are there other algorithms that are designed, essentially, to fail? This is a wide question that we'll explore by looking at one area in particular: online dating.

Dating apps are used by millions of lovelorn users to find their match. For Virtual Natives, love has always been found online.

“When I was in college and you went to a bar, you had to exchange phone numbers. Heaven forbid you lost that number, or you'd never see that person again,” Jason, 47, reminisced. “There was absolutely no other way to find them, so losing a number was torture! Then, all these apps came along. It was like, who does this? Now, it's totally ...