It goes without saying that the world is changing, and how relationships will look in ten years time is an exciting thing to think about. It’s an exciting time for breakthrough technology, and an even more exciting time for introverts who don’t necessarily get a high off of having to leave their home. We’ve clearly entered the digital age already, but to take it even further, we’ve started to replace human staff; restaurants, airports, movie theaters, and even some schools are now equipped with robots and futuristic technology that makes it so we don’t have the same human interactions we’ve had throughout history thus far.
We’re perfecting flying cars (I’m still sad that Back To The Future was off by at least a few years in predicting when we’d all be driving through the air), constructing high-speed trains, and don’t get me started on the advancements in architecture and biomedicine, otherwise this article would turn into a full-on book. I’m just going to sip my coffee that I bought from an actual human barista and keep my fingers crossed that teleportation is our next big move!
Dating is no exception to the new era. There are millions of dating apps all around the world, and statistics show that the number of marriages stemming from online dating is increasing at an exponential rate. Gone are the days of having no other option but to put out the vibe at your local watering hole in hopes that you’ll find a new special someone. Additionally, more and more first dates are happening via Skype or FaceTime from the comforts of each other’s homes. We’re in a time where people love being accommodated, and pursuing love whilst sitting at home in their PJ’s is an effortless way to still feel socially productive.
So what do relationships look like in the future? Are we all going to become unfamiliar with the human touch and become subjected to just dating Siri, like Joaquin Phoenix in Her? Or will the opposite happen, where we scale back from the direction we’re heading in and try to revive old school romantic courting?
Unfortunately for the hopeless romantics out there, studies show that the latter is on its last breath. Similar to how video killed the radio star, we’re on the technologically-advanced super-speed track to a futuristic world.
Here are some predictions and theories of what relationships could look like in ten years.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality is taking the world by storm, especially the world of online dating. We started with apps like eHarmony and Tinder, evolved to apps that cater to specific lifestyles and interests, like Farmers Only, and now people are getting engaged via virtual reality.
VR technology is moving fast in its technological advancements, predicting that soon we might be able to touch and smell people through VR in addition to seeing and hearing them. Someone can have a 3D hologram of you just chilling in their kitchen, even if they’re across the world.
I mean….at least we’ll still know what holding someone’s hand feels like?
UnderSkin
Okay. So. I have to admit, this one frightens me a tad. UnderSkin is a project that New Deal Design is working on (the minds that brought us FitBit). Although I absolutely love my FitBit and am in eternal admiration for the designers’ brains, I don’t know if I’m emotionally prepared for their latest creation. Which, to bring it full circle, with UnderSkin you’d be able to tell how I feel about it just by looking at a tattoo on my body.
Confused? Same. UnderSkin is a tattoo implanted under the skin (ha!) that glows a personalized pattern to visualize someone’s emotions when they touch something. Basically it’s taking the root work out of trying to figure out if your girlfriend meant it when she said “I’m fine”, or if she’s actually upset with you.
Also, forget ten years; the “tattoo” is predicted to be designed and completed by 2021.
Marriage Decline Will Continue To Accelerate
Less and less people are choosing to get married. We’re in a progressive time for women, who are becoming financially independent and moving their way all the way to the top in their respective professional industries. No longer is society telling them that they’re unofficially required to get married and have children, and it’s becoming a subconscious normality to choose not to take that path.
Furthermore, as the middle-class sadly diminishes, the birth rate will continue to decline because the vast majority of the population soon won’t be afford to afford children.
That said, people still want the formality of long-term partnerships, so the popularity of WedLease (renewable marriage contract that only lasts a few years) is on the rise. Either way, we’ve definitely broken through the walls of societal norm.
Computers Might Help Us Be Less Awkward
You know in awesome teen movies where someone’s trying to talk to their crush and their friend is hiding somewhere nearby, feeding them lines to say? This might ACTUALLY happen.
Computers in the future could theoretically help us out on dates by putting dating advice and things to talk about in our brains. ADDITIONALLY, the computers would be able to pretty much Yelp review our dates for us in real time…. like, tell us if it’s going so badly that we might just want to jump ship.
Sex Will Become A Sport
People don’t take sex seriously anymore on an emotional level, and this isn’t changing anytime soon. Statistically proven, more and more people are getting frisky upon first meeting someone, because they’re not connecting it to anything except recreation. Kind of sad that it’s lost its meaning, but it’s factually true.
What was once seen as the most intimate bond between two people as well as the only way to procreate, isn’t seen as either anymore. As we went over above, the birth rate is decreasing at an alarming rate, so since clearly nobody’s knocking boots to try and make a baby, it’s literally seen nowadays as a feel-good recreational activity.
In 2019, it’s not unheard of to have sex on the first date or even “one-night-stands”. In ten years’ time, it’s predicted to become almost expected.
Long Distance Dating
That sounds way more simpler than what it actually means. Let’s circle back to when I mentioned high-speed trains and take it a step further.
If you haven’t heard about it yet, SpaceX and the Elon Musk gang are working on a high-speed way called Hyperloop, which transports people at a predicted speed of 500mph; through vacuum tubes! Vacuum tubes!
This isn’t even going to take ten years to happen, they’re hoping to build a flawless pod for the system by next year. Which means in ten years, it’ll most likely be the only way we travel (though I haven’t looked into pricing on it yet, so this is speculative in the event that it doesn’t cost a trillion dollars).
What this means for dating is that distance isn’t going to be a problem anymore. If someone in New York wants to take someone in LA on a date, they could be there in about two hours. As an LA native, that’s easily less time than it takes to drive to Santa Monica from Hollywood in rush hour traffic.
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People’s Standards Are Going To Be Atrociously High
With dating apps at our disposal, playing the superficial game of “Hot or Not” has already become second nature. And with access to so many people across the world at our fingertips, it’s also become second nature to keep moving right along if someone has even just one of what an individual considers a flaw. People have become crazy-picky and it shows.
In the next ten years, this is only going to get worse. With artificial intelligence advancing to human-like computers designed to fit its owners ideal preferences in every way, the bar for expectations in terms of dating is going to be raised even higher.
Dating Your Computer
I’m sure you thought I was making a joke earlier when I referenced Joaquin Phoenix in Her (if you haven’t seen it, he basically falls in love with a more developed Siri), but I actually wasn’t joking. By 2029, according to a director of engineering at Google, computers will be able to read at human levels (meaning emotional intelligence) and have a variety of human characteristics.
They’ll be able to tell jokes, be loving, be romantic, and even be sexy. Aforementioned director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil, believes that people can and will have human relationships with their computers in about 15 years from now.
He also stated that computer devices will eventually be the size of blood cells, and by 2030 they can be put inside of our brains.
WILD.
“Serial Monogamy” Is Real
In a survey conducted on men and women regarding whether or not they believe in one marriage that lasts forever, they believe that we have multiple “soulmates” throughout our lives, or would they prefer to be single forever, 85 percent said that they wanted a life partner; but only 45 percent believe in having one partner for the rest of their lives.
“Till Death Do Us Part” is starting to lose its meaning, with more people choosing to be in several short-term monogamous relationships and marriage throughout their lives as opposed to finding “The One” and calling it a day.
I mean, building a foundation and a life with numerous people at different times sounds exhausting, but to each their own right?
“Remote Intimacy”
Researchers have already developed a device that kind of resembles a very, very large hard marshmallow that is equipped with sensors and actuators to make you feel like you’re kissing your significant other when you’re away from them.
In the future, this will be available for purchase (it’s only a prototype at the moment), but that’s not all; researchers also predict that people will be able to buy similar devices for more intimate stimulation than kissing, if you know what I mean….and I’m not talking about the “blow up doll”.
I guess kissing a marshmallow could become less weird over time than it currently sounds to me, but with the high-speed vacuum pods eliminating long-distance relationship complications, do we really need this?
DNA Matchmaking
At the moment, we have dating apps and services that match us to potential partners based on our similar interests, views, and lifestyles. It seems to be working out incredibly well, considering the marriage rate stemming from online dating is only increasing. But hey, 2029 is only ten years away so why not take it up a notch?
Advanced technology and medicine are soon going to give us the ability to romantically connect with someone based off of DNA. We will be able to know if they have a specific disease that runs in their family, their genetic makeup, predispositions, and even behavioral patterns based on their blood type.
It’s an absolute crazy time in history. We have access to things that not only our parents didn’t have, but every single generation before them. In a lot of ways, these changes can be intimidating to those that still enjoy living life outside of their computers as well as the old-fashioned romantics who still believe in the sanctity of marriage, love, sex, and in-person human interactions. Admittedly, I’m not incredibly thrilled on what dating looks like it’s going to be ten years from now. I enjoy meeting people and learning about them organically, and I would love to hang onto my awkwardness instead of allowing it to be tarnished and diminished by a computer in my brain telling me how to be cooler. Again, though, to each their own and if what the future holds makes more people happy than unhappy, I’m all for it. Plus, I’m kind of excited to try out these human vacuum pods. After all, New York does have better bagels than Los Angeles.
