With sleep trackers, heart monitors, activity wristbands and other data-logging devices, people today have more numbers to describe their lifestyles than ever before. And research from Newcastle University shows how these numbers pave way to a new human social function: metadating.
Instead of relying on an app or spying through browser cookies, Metadating relies on handwriting. The 11 participants which showed up on the first ever metadating event had to fill out a form where they got to decide what data they wanted to share.
Common entries include diet, amount of steps per day (courtesy of Fitbit), aesthetic preferences and activity charts. Participants also got to choose in what way this data was represented: in tables, pie charts, or, being a popular choice, graphs.
Chris Elsden, co-author of the paper on the project, reveals:
“We found that people presented their information in two distinct ways. Some explicitly chose unusual and interesting data to record, while the others felt they should be more honest and accurate in the data they represented. However, for all participants, the hand-drawn profiles offered a new and more expressive way of sharing and talking about their data than existing digital tools.”
While it could be tempting to lie to appear more attractive, modern day tools that quantify our movement make it tougher to exaggerate. Metadata challenges dating’s big problem: revealing a pretend version of ourselves to seem more attractive to other people. The 10-page academic paper reads:
“Nearly all participants were very frank about the inaccuracies or fabrications of their profile. Yet despite these admissions, they were all insistent that this data still represented them or was “kind of true” and they had not lied on their profile.”
Although it was unusual that metadata was used in a relatively arcane method of speed dating (in person instead of something like Tinder), the seven men and four women in the study enjoyed talking about the data. While on the subject of success, researchers reveal that at least one duo from the metadating event is now a longterm couple.
This article was written by Leo Lutero from PSFK and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
