As all ways the ending of a black mirror episode comes with a big twist, this is no other case then with the episode of Hang the DJ. The biggest part of the episode shows us the two main character taking part in an institute where the System has them date multiple partners to find the perfect match. The two fall in love with each other, but the System gives their relationship a quick expiration date and tries to force them with other partners. In the end the two main characters find out something strange is going on with the institute and out of love for each other try to break out. The true end of the episode shows us that this was all a simulation within an dating app, which used the data of the two main characters in real life to simulate 1000 dating scenarios. In 998 of the scenarios the two people defied the system out of love for each other. In real life the two main characters meet each other in a bar for the first time and the app tells them they have a 99,8% perfect match (VanArendonk, 2018).
This episode is an interesting example of how dating apps in the future could use our personal information to match us with a perfect partner. If we should want this is a different discussion, but nonetheless it can be argued that this would disrupt the dating industry. The most popular apps now, such as OkCupid, Tinder, Bumble, don’t try to match a person on collected data but work with a algorithme that is based on a simplistic swipe mechanism. Other companies try to match people based on interests and biological factors, but these companies don’t have the amount of participants or data to efficiently match people and are often very expensive (FT.com, 2018). So can we think of a company that has 200 million users on it’s platform that list themselves as single and has enough of data on it’s users that misuse can influence election outcomes (Graham-Harrison and Cadwalladr, 2018)? Welcome to the age of Facebook Dating!
Facebook Dating is now reality and has started with its prototype in Colombia (The Verge, 2018). The app will use an algorithm that analyses all you friends, likes and a pre-filled-in personality survey to match you up with potential perfect partners, which you can immediately send a message (it will only match you up with friends of your friends, so that you will not awkwardly be matched up with an ex). As well the users are able to use the match function within a specific facebook group or event (to find that long lost perfect festival fling or to see if you are a good match with a colleague student). If the pilot in Colombia goes well it will be available world wide (Matsakis, 2018). In the future facebook could make the app ever more effective by integrating the data collected from its popular daughter company Instagram, So now the questions arises, can Facebook work around all the privacy issues that this will bring and is this going to disrupt the dating industry?
References
Ft.com. (2018). Best of Money: single, dating and paying a very high price for it | Financial Times. [online] Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/8f1ea67a-e168-11e5-8d9b-e88a2a889797 [Accessed 15 Oct. 2018].
Graham-Harrison, E. and Cadwalladr, C. (2018). Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election [Accessed 15 Oct. 2018].
Matsakis, L. (2018). Facebook Is Testing Its Dating Service. Here’s How It’s Different From Tinder. [online] WIRED. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-dating-how-it-works/ [Accessed 13 Oct. 2018].
The Verge. (2018). Facebook Dating launches today with a test in Colombia. [online] Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/20/17871690/facebook-dating-release-colombia-test [Accessed 14 Oct. 2018].
VanArendonk, K. (2018). Let’s Talk About the Ending of Black Mirror’s ‘Hang the DJ’. [online] Vulture. Available at: http://www.vulture.com/2018/01/black-mirror-season-4-episode-4-ending-explained.html [Accessed 13 Oct. 2018].
