The Birth of Online Dating | 14
History of the 90s
Kathy Kenzora
4.7 • 610 Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2020
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Depending on who you talk to, the introduction of online dating in 1995 either revolutionized society or destroyed it.
On this episode of History of the 90s, host Kathy Kenzora looks back at the creation of online dating and how it became such a normal part of our lives.
We talk to the creator of Match.com and the first mainstream dating website about what inspired him to use the internet to solve the age-old problem of finding a perfect match.
And we unpack the data that has been collected by sociologists who have been studying online dating to understand how swiping left and right has impacted how we meet and who we meet.
Contact:
Twitter: @1990shistory
Facebook: @1990shistory
Instagram: @that90spodcast
Email: 90s@curiouscast.ca
Guests:
Gary Kremen, pioneer of online dating.
Twitter: @gkremen
David Kushner, author of The Player’s Ball: A Genius, A Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet’s Rise
Twitter: @davidkushner
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, it's Kathy. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to History of the 90s |
| 0:04.7 | early and ad-free on Amazon music included with Prime. |
| 0:10.7 | Since the beginning of time, we humans have craved connection. And throughout history, |
| 0:17.7 | who you met was usually determined by where you lived, your class, your friends, |
| 0:24.0 | and who your parents knew. Well, in 1995, something was introduced that revolutionized |
| 0:31.2 | not only how people met, but how they dated, fell in love, and also who they married. |
| 0:38.9 | I'm Kathy Kinsora, and this is the history of the 90s, a podcast about a decade that changed the world. |
| 0:46.1 | And this episode is all about the birth of online dating. |
| 1:00.8 | Depending who you talk to, online dating has either reshaped society or destroyed it. |
| 1:09.5 | But everyone can agree that dating sites like Tinder, Bumble, and Match.com are now a normal part of our lives. |
| 1:13.9 | Being able to connect to someone millions of miles away wasn't always so easy. In fact, the first step on our path to online dating was through newspaper |
| 1:21.6 | personal ads. In 1695, the very first personal ad appeared in a London periodical. |
| 1:29.9 | It read, a gentleman, about 30 years of age that says he has a very good estate, |
| 1:36.0 | is willing to match himself to a good young gentlewoman that has a fortune of 3,000 pounds or |
| 1:42.8 | thereabouts. |
| 1:50.0 | For centuries, personal ads like that were a fortune of 3,000 pounds or thereabouts. For centuries, personal ads like that were a staple of the newspaper business. By the 1980s and 90s, there were nearly 2,000 publications offering personal ads at around $120 a pop, |
| 2:00.0 | which was a huge revenue stream for the papers and magazines that carried them. |
| 2:04.6 | Here's how it worked. If you saw an ad that was appealing, you could call a 1-900 number. |
| 2:10.6 | Enter a four-digit code that had been listed, and you would hear the voice behind the ad. |
| 2:16.6 | If you liked what you heard, you could leave a message at a cost of $2 or $3 a minute. |
| 2:22.0 | If you didn't want to call, you could always send a handwritten letter of response, |
| 2:27.1 | perhaps with a photo, to a PO box listed in the ad. |
... |
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