The Hottest Trend in Romance Is "Just Talking"

Here's my latest culture briefing

Watch out, I’m giving romance advice again.

Be forewarned: I’m almost as antiquated as the Oracle at Delphi when it comes to dating tips. I met my own wife via an actual matchmaker (a human being not an app).

I felt like a character in Fiddler on the Roof.

We didn’t have apps back then. When we swiped and scrolled, we used actual scrolls.

But I’m doing more than just my Miss Lonelyhearts routine today. So I also have some very un-romantic things to say below—where I deliver my latest culture briefing.

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The hottest trend in dating is “just talking” relationships.

I was raised by prudish adults, and they had all sorts of rules for dating. Many of them quoted newspaper columnist Ann Landers who offered dating teens this guidance: “I advise keeping four feet on the floor and all hands on deck.”

Landers is now departed, along with most of those prudish adults, but they must be celebrating in the hereafter. That’s because the hottest trend in dating is “just talking.”

Dr. D. Scott Sibley is researching this trend, and his survey of young adults reveals growing confusion over the rules of dating. For example, 53% of respondents said that “Just talking is difficult to explain.”

More than 80% admitted that just talking isn’t real dating, but 45% of respondents also insist that you shouldn’t be “just talking to multiple people at the same time.” So there’s a kind of just talking monogamy involved.

Only a minority of respondents opposed the idea that just talking is an “alternative to a committed relationship.”

Sibley concludes:

Many participants expressed frustration about just talking, but also indicated that just talking is the norm now due to the ease of smartphones and social media apps….Just talking appears to be here to stay, since technology continues to be a driving force in romantic relationship formation. 

I’ll sum up my reaction by citing a favorite proverb: Talk is cheap.

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Tech users are turning into “love slaves”— addicted to the voice of their favorite chatbot.

Here’s the ultimate just talking romance for you. People are already falling in love with the voices of their favorite AI chatbots.

According to Vox:

OpenAI thinks there’s a risk of people developing what it called an “emotional reliance” on this AI model, as the company acknowledged in a recent report….

That sounds uncomfortably like addiction. And OpenAI’s chief technology officer Mira Murati straight-up said that in designing chatbots equipped with a voice mode, there is “the possibility that we design them in the wrong way and they become extremely addictive and we sort of become enslaved to them.”

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Why do Netflix shows all look the same?

Is it just your imagination, or do all Netflix shows now look almost identical?

The lighting levels are uniformly bright. The color palette feels the same. The sets look like they were all created by the same designer.

Josh Rosenberg has binge-watched, and offers his verdict:

There’s a striking sameness to the streaming service’s offerings, making everything from Wednesday to Cobra Kai look like a Hallmark Christmas movie produced by The CW.

Is it an intentional branding statement by Netflix? I’m not sure.

I can’t tell you why 3 Body Problem seemingly shares costumes with Avatar: The Last Airbender, why One Piece looks like the Bridgertons with newly developed superpowers, or why you could absolutely convince me that the Love Is Blind pods are placed just a room away from Squid Game’s glass bridge.

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Google cuts a deal with politicians, and agrees to fund journalism—but it’s actually an AI subsidy bill in disguise.

California lawmakers were trying to pass a law that would force Google to pay for the news it distributes. That would have been a big deal, and maybe even saved newspapers from collapse.

But not anymore.