June 29, 2013
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Rate Your Date: Has Technology Gone Too Far?
During my college years the Rate My Professors website became very popular amongst my fellow co-eds who kept badgering me to utilize the website. No, I would consistently respond to them, it just doesn't seem like the right thing to do. An opinion is just someone's personal opinion and each person's experience with another person is different from the next one. I wanted to experience the professor for myself and judge them solely on how they handle the material and treated me. I felt very strongly about not using the website. It just sounded mean and slightly unethical; you, as a student, could destroy a professor's reputation that they had worked so hard to build. The idea of Yelp-rating a person has now been taken to some interesting territory: dating. The app is called Lulu, created by entrepreneur Alexandra Chong which allows women and only women (no boys allowed) to rate their male friends, lovers, ex-boyfriends and ex-lovers. The app was launched in February and has garnered some interesting attention. This means that you can now date and rate your dates in cyberspace, without leaving the comfort of your home
According to an article via The Huffington Post:
The app allows users (women only) to sign in through Facebook and rate men they know using various pre-written hashtags. Examples include #AlwaysPays, #RespectsWomen, #Boring and #WearsEdHardy. Men can't use the app, but they can remove themselves if their reviews make them uncomfortable. Chong told BuzzFeed in February that Lulu is meant to be "a place you can talk about the good and the bad."
We are in the age of zero privacy with everything about you which is posted onto the Internet for all to see. It actually makes sense that an app like Lulu would follow the changing times. If you look at different dating sites and dating apps, dating has become a game of strategy to minimize risk and sort and order what you want. You can go onto Match.com, meet a man, check his rating and stats on Lulu, perhaps what he's packing down below #PenisSize and gauge in real-life and time if he fits into your mate checklist. It's almost like shopping on Amazon for shoes. I personally find the app disturbing and somewhat comical.
Some women agree with me:
However, some women have found the app to be more creepy than useful. "It’s the textual equivalent of leaking your ex’s naked pics to the Internet -- it’s not wrong because it’s sexual, it’s wrong because it’s nonconsensual," wrote Slate's Amanda Hess.
I'm still into meeting people organically, hanging out and seeing where the relationship goes without any techonological intervention. Then again, maybe I'm just behind in the times.
If you want to read more about the app.
What are your thoughts on Lulu and the influence of technology on dating?
Comments (18)
I don't like the app at all. The whole thing sounds incredibly judgmental and I guarantee that if men had a site like this about their dates, that women would be in a huge huff about it. I agree about it being wrong because it's non-consensual and incredibly unfairOne girl's boring is another girl's calm. I wouldn't trust a stranger's judgment when I've met neither the guy or the one rating him. How could I know that the rater is being honest?
@theotherside - Are you being judgmental of something you perceive to be judgmental?Your qualm with the app is that it's "unfair"? lol
@T3hZ10n@xanga - yes, Wow, You've really got me this time. Good job, buddy. You are so smart and amazing. I love how pithy and intelligent you are. You rock my world. Can I please, oh, please!!! be even half as intelligent as you so naturally are, even without having to try? I can't wait for your comeback about how immature sarcasm is. For someone who wants to not be involved with me because I'm gross, you sure do involve yourself with me a lot. I really can't wait for you response. Hurry up now, say something earth shattering that would never occur to anyone else in the whole world, you amazing God of all knowledge, especially that of humans and most specifically, dating! YAY! Rain down on me with your genius!!! I can't wait!!!
@T3hZ10n@xanga - Wow! Genius, thank you so much my life is changed. Hallelujah!
@theotherside - Aw, is something bothering you?I'm sorry to tell you, but inanimate objects or entities (such as an app) cannot be "unfair". A person's name isn't for him/herself. A name is meant to be used by others, to describe others. You don't own it.You don't need consent to recount the events of your own life.
@theotherside - OMGORSH, you're welcome.
@T3hZ10n@xanga - What a magnanimous, benevolent giver you are.
@theotherside - Oh, you flatter me. We both know I'm not nearly as much a "giver" as you are.
@T3hZ10n@xanga - So right! I love a good character assassination. What a dirty girl I must be
@theotherside - Expressing an opinion is "character assassination"? Such a victim. A person can't disagree with you without being a perpetrator of some sort.
@T3hZ10n@xanga - Right again. Totally right. Teach me.
I have my own dreaminess app already installed in my mind my boss crush gets 1 billion fangirl points tyson beckford, david gandy and dennis oh are in a three way tie for 1 zillion fangirl points. they'll sit at a roundtable and give me their dreamiest smile and puppydog eyes. I'll stare at them as I ponder my decision
Wtf, this isn't right. I would hate if there was one of these for women, imagine if you were on it!? I would be so embarassed, I'd probably have #alwaysrunninglate #talkstoomuch haha oh well.
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@theotherside - I completely agree with you. This is a creepy way of treating men like objects to be ranked, and when anything like that happens with women, it's a big deal. Treating people like pieces of meat to be ranked and discussed is wrong. And any app that's "for women only" is going to run into problems with the trans community. How do you know someone is a woman? How does the app know? If it relies on individual input, what's to say men can't claim to be women to get in on it? It's a completely flawed and stupid idea.
This is ridiculous. And I totally agree there would be an uproar if men made an app like this about women.
i think its a small payback.. lol women have to deal with all this explicitness constantly, its gr8 we get to have some small, sweet .. fun ... friendly revenge.
Thanks friends, for providing such enlightening data.video not available
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