Online dating markets frame romance as return on affective investment
Evidence
Thus, one might approach one’s dating life in the mode of an entrepreneur or investor, yet not be trying to generate, accumulate, or invest monetary wealth in this domain. Many upscale online dating companies define their clientele and offerings in these terms, identifying the importance of maximizing return on investment of affect, not only time and money. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 50
Categorization
- SEED: Dating-as-investment is a vivid everyday instance of economization worth an accessible essay angle.
- XREF: connects to: Online dating apps have surpassed human intermediaries in forming US heterosexual couples — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 342; People have become romantic entrepreneurs using love to manage future uncertainty — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 351; Market penetration shifted emotional investment into the private sphere (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Digital-financial convergence reorients intimacy toward open-ended uncertainty navigation rather than destroying sociality
#expands(0.82) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 164 - Market penetration shifted emotional investment into the private sphere
#complicates(0.78)