Entertainment within new media is probably my central mental focus – I’m sure that I think about it in one form or another on a daily basis, because I enjoy storytelling, comedy, the cinematic arts, narratology, and all things related to them. Although I am often blogging (and almost always for a class) about sundry digital media topics, and will continue to do so, I feel that for my term project in my Evolution and Trends in Digital Media Technologies course I need to stir clear of the subject of entertainment this time. I need to challenge myself, particularly as a budding scholar wannabe, and dive in to subject matter, while still fascinating to me, I do not have a clear cut understanding of from an analytical and evolutionary perspective. The idea that came to mind was on-line dating systems. You know what I’m talking about, and it’s got nothing to do with the calendar. Dating is an important subject to me as a single man, and I have had some exposure to on-line dating at least in tangential ways through social media, so why not tackle just what on-line dating has become in our digital media landscape. Borrowing from Winston (see my last post), I feel that on-line dating appears to have filled some sort of supervening social necessity, or has become one, in the social sphere of the modern world today. I suppose I would like to get to the bottom of the issue and cover a history of the phenomenon, the technology behind it, and where it seems to be going, and so on and so forth. Below are some references that I found in a simple EBSCO search that seem to indicate that the subject of on-line dating is being taken seriously in certain academic circles. So, I think I’m on the right path. Thoughts?
Now, the lucky thing for me is the other course I am taking this quarter is Hanson Hosein’s storytelling class, so readers will find a plethora of entertainment-related content here as the next few months progress. And, well, the subject of on-line dating I am sure can be very entertaining in and of itself. So, lucky for everyone!
Some Potential Sources For My Research
Mahfouz, A. Y., Philaretou, A. G., & Theocharous, A. (2008). Virtual social interactions: Evolutionary, social psychological and technological perspectives. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(6), 3014-3026. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2008.05.008
Lenton, A. P., Fasolo, B., & Todd, P. M. (2008). “Shopping” for a Mate: Expected versus Experienced Preferences in Online Mate Choice. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. 51 (2), 169.
You might also enjoy...
Tags: dating, entertainment