Originally published September 2018

As the human race continues to create and improve upon technology at a rate at which our social and biological systems can't evolve, new social problems for humanity continue to pop up. One very common issue that has been around since the dawn of humanity is how to initiate and foster romantic relationships. Dating has always been a bit of an awkward and complicated affair that has gotten more open, social, and serious over the course of the past few decades. From the sexual revolution of the ‘60s changing the social landscape drastically to women attending more universities, entering the workplace, and becoming more prominent in positions traditionally held by men: the possible ways in which couples could meet have drastically changed. However, that doesn't hold a candle to how many more options people have today with online dating and dating apps on their phones. Swiped: Hooking up in the Digital Age is an HBO documentary that seeks to demonstrate how online dating through the use of phone apps has changed the game once again, as well as possibly further perpetuating problems in the dating world.

Swiped, more or less, succeeds through the use of interviews with psychologists and social specialists, while also interviewing young examples of the online dating generation from different regions of the United States. It covers a wide array of topics and scenarios in its 90-minute run-time in relation to online dating. However, like other HBO Documentaries I've watched recently, it was lacking in certain areas that would have made it far more interesting and enlightening.

Pros

• Discusses many sub-topics in their relation to online dating

• Shows perspectives from people in vastly different regions of the US

• Brings up some bigger issues about the nature of technology and how it affects people

Cons

• Specialists don't cite enough studies; some are just too opinionated to be taken seriously

• While the people all come from different regions of the US, the people selected for the documentary don't differ in their viewpoints enough to provide a diverse array of perspectives

• Touches on many topics but doesn't do a deep dive into any of them in a meaningful way

• Spends an uneven amount of time with the sample populations and their opinions rather than time with the specialists

Additional Thoughts

Swiped: Hooking up in the Digital Age goes through a variety of subjects surrounding online dating in the modern world, such as: how the evolution of mating between humans as society has progressed; how dating apps can reduce or remove the value of a relationship; how men use the apps versus women; how the dating apps are designed around addictive gambling tricks; how revenge porn can impact a person's life; how dating apps can operate in a post-#MeToo world. One of the best things about documentaries like Swiped is that they can create some insightful and meaningful conversations among their viewers because of all the topics they cover.

One of the biggest problems with Swiped is that it didn't focus on any one subject enough to feel like you got much out of it. There are a lot of different ways to discuss the nature of dating and how drastically it's changed in the past 10 years. So, it can be very difficult to cover them all in only 90 minutes. Swiped does a good enough job touching on as many different facets and sub-topics as it can, but there were still some that were left out, like how dating scams can happen or how dating apps affect the less social male populations. Of the topics it does cover, it never quite goes into enough detail or shows all the different perspectives that may oppose the stereotypical scenario.

Much like other HBO documentaries, Swiped is NOT an unbiased affair that is strictly for educational purposes. When the documentary team is speaking with groups of men or groups of women, the attitudes towards dating are all pretty similar to each other, regardless of their region of the US. There were interviews with frat boys, players, and gay men who went out to nightclubs, which all provided a perspective of how the apps were used primarily to lead to sex and not lasting relationships. Meanwhile, most of the interviews with women across the country of the same age group mostly focused on how men used the apps for sex or sending pictures of their genitals. There was one couple who met through Tinder that the documentary focused on for a moment, but then it proved to be a bit of a failure by the end of the movie. I would have liked to have seen more about why their relationship didn't work, or even a success story, if there was one. I would have liked to have seen the perspective of the lonely Incel male who wants something out of a date other than the typical frat boy. I would have liked to have seen if there is any positive at all to these apps because the documentary makes a very strong case for why they're terrible.

The only success story I saw was that of dating apps and how they managed to become a billion-dollar industry. However, since these people involved in this success story are part of wealthy corporations, they have to be the villains of the movie. While most of the interviews consist of a person answering questions and telling their story without any input from the interviewer, there are several moments in the documentary where the question of the interviewer is audible while talking to an executive or PR representative of one of these companies. They ask their question, the person responds in a way a corporate entity that is trying to avoid controversy would, and then a clip is shown debunking that statement and making the representative of that company look foolish. The film is not wrong for showing their dismissal of the various negatives of their apps, like how dating apps have led to violent and sexual assaults, or how there seemingly is no sufficient evidence to support the claim that dating apps actually help lead to lasting relationships. Nonetheless, there is a strong bias and agenda to Swiped, which, I believe, hinders the overall usefulness of the documentary.

If you put all the bias aside, it is still an interesting topic with many facets worth covering. The discussion about how many phone apps (not just dating ones) are designed with the same sort of logic around inducing gambling-like behavior in people was a particularly fascinating one. Gamification is something that is somewhat universal to phone apps with the idea around it being that for everything the user does, they get some sort of achievement or visual reward, releasing dopamine in the brain and making you pull the lever again to keep playing. Thus, when you make the process of dating into a game, where you are just trying to swipe and match with as many people as possible, the user's perspective on how to view potential partners may be affected. In some cases, it seemed to reduce the value of the potential lovers. Men, who already tend to view their dates as sex objects, are looking at their dates as mere opportunities for sex, and women are feeling less committed and are more likely to get bored with the relationship faster.

Part of the reason I think the Gamification section of the documentary was so interesting was because it was also the part of the film where the psychologists and sociologists were being interviewed the most. There's plenty of value in talking to people who are actively using dating apps, but their perspective is not necessarily an informed one. While I was watching Swiped, I desperately wanted more breakdowns and more theorizing about the behavior of humans based on the current sub-topic of the film. As I've said in other documentary reviews, it all comes down to the formula of entertainment vs education. There have been plenty of HBO docs that I've watched over the years and they've tended towards the entertainment side more than anything else, and it's no different here. That being said, Swiped is at least still informative enough to give insight into a world I had no real interest in or knowledge of. In fact, it only further inscribed in my brain how I must be getting old because of how much I pitied the younger generation for how technology is changing their reality for the worse.

TL;DR (Conclusion)

When technology has made the old proverb of "plenty of fish in the sea" a very real, omnipresent truth, do your chances of meeting someone worthwhile increase or decrease? Swiped seems to make the argument that your chances of meeting people have increased with dating apps, while your chances of forging a meaningful relationship have fallen precipitously. Swiped touches on a variety of different topics that are all interesting in their own way, but it doesn't spend quite enough time with a single topic to really teach you much. The biases of the film also seem to inhibit the possibility of objective perspectives on the subject matter. While the documentary is not the most informative and has a very clear bias in its view of the topic, Swiped: Hooking up in the Digital Age is still an interesting look at the future of dating for the human race.

Fan of death metal? Check out my band on Bandcamp and Soundcloud. If you like what you hear and want to hear more, head to HoundsofInnsmouth.com for more info!