This paper begins with a discussion of the way in which industry has harnessed information technology to facilitate dating. I suggest that philosopher Alain Badiou and other theorists who have argued that online dating substitutes rationality for intuition in partner selection, and that online dating is detrimental to love, are mistaken in their views. I argue instead that information technology facilitates a combination of rational, or calculative, and intuitive means to initiating and developing relationships, which in significant ways are preferable to the means available in “real life.” I show how modern dating tools enable dating and love especially in forms that lack adequate support in society at large; accordingly, these tools might make the pursuit of intimacy and love fairer or more just. To help support this claim, I conduct a review of empirical studies that have assessed the risks and rewards associated with online dating and the distribution of these risks and rewards across different demographic groups. Finally I turn to the intersection of love and doubt, or uncertainty; with reference to cultural representations of love, or “love stories,” and in conversation with several theorists of love, I suggest that persistent uncertainty, and its continual alleviation, are constitutive of the condition of love in the contemporary Western imagination, and that this is the case regardless of the dating medium.

中文翻译：

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约会市场和爱情故事：追求亲密和爱情的自由和公平

本文首先讨论了行业利用信息技术促进约会的方式。我认为哲学家阿兰·巴迪欧 (Alain Badiou) 和其他理论家认为网上约会在选择伴侣时用理性代替了直觉，网上约会不利于爱情，他们的观点是错误的。相反，我认为信息技术促进了理性、计算和直觉手段的结合，以启动和发展关系，这在很大程度上优于“现实生活”中可用的手段。我展示了现代约会工具如何实现约会和爱情，尤其是在整个社会缺乏足够支持的形式中；因此，这些工具可能会使对亲密和爱情的追求更公平或更公正。为了帮助支持这一主张，我对实证研究进行了回顾，这些研究评估了与在线约会相关的风险和回报，以及这些风险和回报在不同人口群体中的分布。最后我转向爱与怀疑的交叉点，或不确定性；参考爱的文化表征，或“爱情故事”，并在与几位爱的理论家交谈时，我认为持续的不确定性及其持续缓解是当代西方想象中爱的条件的组成部分，而这无论约会媒介如何，情况都是如此。