Christianmingle.com
and Its Effects on Society Today
As
someone born into a technology minded era, it seems to me that dating service
websites have always been around. In fact, the first ones didn’t appear until the
late 1990’s, but they’ve been increasing in popularity since then as our
society becomes more reliant on technology. One surprising trend is the
popularity of specialized sites; those sites which cater exclusively to certain
races, religions, sexual orientations, or other dating criteria are actually
the most successful and gain in popularity each year (Online Dating Service).
For this assignment I chose to focus on christianmingle.com, as it is a
well-advertised specialty online dating service which I found very intriguing.
The idea of a dating service which alienates so many seemed at first to be a
contradiction; how would such a service be successful with such a specifically
defined group of people? However, with approximately 30% of America’s 80
million baby boomers single, it makes sense that a large number of those would
be Christians looking for mates with the same faith and views (Online Dating
Service). The success of christianmingle.com is obvious, with the numerous ads
on television, in magazines, and on some of the most visited sites on the web.
A service that efficiently catalogues the profiles of thousands of members,
allows members to communicate, and matches them based on personality and
interest tests is clearly a digital artifact, affecting all generations of
today’s society (Christianmingle.com Review).
Christianmingle.com
is one of many specialty online dating services created by Spark Networks. The
creators of Spark Networks saw the possibilities in catering to small cultural
subsets, and launched their first dating service in 1997, JDate (a site for
Jewish singles). Since then the company has launched several more dating
services, each geared toward a specific group of users (About Us). Though
christianmingle.com is geared toward Christian singles, its advertising is much
more widespread, and reaches a great deal of today’s society. For instance, I
personally am not a Christian, nor am I looking to find “the one,” yet I know
all about christianmingle.com and the services it provides. My personal knowledge
comes from television ads for the most part; these ads are informational and
visually appealing to a younger generation. My theory is that the site’s
content itself will bring in those who are avidly in search of finding a mate,
and the advertising is an additional tool meant to entice a wider range of
users, including younger users and those who are interested but not actively
searching for the site. Marshall McLuhen touches on this phenomenon in The Medium is the Massage. He says the
“television generation is a grim bunch,” meaning our generation, which is
exposed to nearly all aspects of the media via television, has a greater
understanding of what is happening in the world because of this exposure. I
personally learned about christianmingle.com via television ads; though I am
not an interested customer, I now know about the site: its existence, its
purpose, and its intended demographic (McLuhen, 123).
Vannevar Bush’s piece As We May Think was a fascinating
article in which Bush basically outlined the World Wide Web, before it was
actually created. Bush simply wrote about a system he thought necessary to
provide access to information and ideas, and he called it the Memex. The Memex
was Bush’s answer to a need for easier access in research; his ideas inspired
hyperlinking as a way to quickly jump from one idea to the next (As We May
Think). Online dating services in general employ these same ideas;
christianmingle.com in particular works similarly to the way Bush envisioned
the Memex, but with a much more narrowly defined purpose. Individual users
input information about themselves, upload photos, and answer questions; the
program compiles all of this and makes the connections so that users can
quickly and easily find their matches. The name of the site itself eliminates a
large number of potentials, and the service then uses the client information to
match clients, and then informs them of their matches. Like Bush, the creators
of christianmingle.com saw a need (an online dating service catering
specifically to Christians), and created the site in an attempt to service this
need. The site connects users from all over digitally, filling the void for an
online dating service with these precise specifications.
Lev
Manovich describes the digital media artifact and what defines it in The Language of New Media; christianmingle.com
meets all five of Manovich’s rules defining a digital artifact: numerical
representation, modularity, automation, variability, and cultural transcoding.
The site and all its features are coded by numbers and characters; without this
numerical representation, programmers would be unable to create such an
efficient and multi-faceted service (christianmingle.com). The site displays
modularity in its many functions; individual profiles, chat functions, and a variety
of tests combine to find the best matches for users. Automation is also
represented in these functions, as they work together like a well-oiled machine
to most effectively service clients (dating review site). Variability can be
found in the many individual profiles and the wide variety of users
participating in the service, as well as the many components of the site which
are used in creating matches between users. Cultural transcoding can be seen in
the way the service is taking common Christian values and incorporating them
into the site to service an exclusive group of clients (The Language of New
Media). Compiling all the functions that individually meet Manovich’s
guidelines, it is easy to see that christianmingle.com is the quintessential
digital artifact; this service performs inside and outside the digital world,
and affects people of all ages and from all cultures.
Coming
into this assignment, I had no idea what a digital media artifact was or what
qualifications defined it. Through course readings and class discussions, I was
able to form my own definition, aside from the ones provided in the readings: a
digital media artifact is anything that is technologically relevant which
conveys some form of media to us. While this is a very broad definition, I feel
that it is appropriate. Technology expands further into all aspects of our
lives with each passing day. I chose christianmingle.com as my digital artifact
for this very reason; as I stated earlier, I am not the target customer for
this service, yet I know all about it. It is a way for people of a certain
demographic to connect virtually; it allows them to learn about each other,
talk, and eventually meet. Its widespread advertising and many components
target as many clients as possible, and then successfully perform the task at
hand, which is matching single Christians. I think that the passage of time
will see this type of digital media artifact growing and becoming more
prevalent; our society is obsessed with technology, and we use it ever increasingly
so that we may fit more into our busy schedules. Perhaps one day this is the
only way we will meet our mates, and dating in person will become a thing of
the past. Until then, online dating services will be used by many, but
definitely not all, and will be a prevalent piece of digital media.
Christianmingle.com will still be a successful website, utilizing its many
functions to keep up with the demands of its users and society as a whole.
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