Data, A Love Story

Watch Amy talk about her book on Good Morning America, which aired Jan. 31st.

Is your online profile keeping you from attracting the right mate?

It was now July, a few weeks since my date with Jim, the weed smoker who refused to split our dinner bill. I knew matching algorithms weren’t perfect, but I kept dating and decided not to cancel my memberships with eHarmony, Match.com, and JDate. The majority of dates I’d been going on weren’t horrible, they just weren’t great. I was an optimist rooted in math and logic.....

Listen to the full interview here.

This interview may ring true for some of you -- those who've eventually realized they're looking for love in all the wrong places.

Watch the full segment of The View here.

But perhaps the reason why we love her the best is that she recently authored “Data, A Love Story.” After attempting – and failing – to find love via online dating, she took matters into her own hands. Or rather, the hands of her male alter ego. Using digital strategy and sharp intellect, she met her ideal man (now husband!). And for the benefit of her fellow lady geeks, she turned her story into a written memoir... Read more here.

The "tyranny of choice" theory posits that surrounded by too many options, we become paralyzed, overwhelmed, and unable to make a decision. Some of us begin to think that we have infinite opportunities and become lured by the prospect of bigger, better deals. Others just want out, so they’re willing to settle for someone who seems good enough at that moment in time...

  DATA is now being translated into three languages! Coming soon to Taiwan, Korea and Brazil! Look for it on bookshelves in Chinese, Korean and Portuguese in a few months!

We've been collecting and analyzing data about Data, A Love Story's readers, reviewers and buyers. For example, how many of Data's readers also belong to AARP? What are the two most common words used to describe Amy's story?

See the results here...

The profit model for dating sites relies on retention, even though our desire as members is exactly the opposite. We want to find true love so we can be finished with dating altogether. Once we’re in relationships, we’re theoretically off the market. We cancel our memberships and spend our money elsewhere. Fresh new crops of daters should cycle through the various dating sites just as current members are leaving, but that’s not always the case. And besides, the more members or page views a site can count, the more money there is to be made.

Data, like diamonds, can be mined. But is data forever? Or, in other words, can you find love by creating a data-based algorithm for online dating sites like match.com? That’s how Amy Webb found her husband. She documents her digital romance in a new book, “Data, a Love Story.” But Christine Rosen is skeptical. The Schwartz Fellow is writing a book that cautions against using too much tech to mediate human experiences– arguing that Yelp and Match.Com may be stealing away the serendipitous experiences that enrich our lives.   On this podcast, listen to the two discuss dating psychology, the danger of marketing ourselves as “products” online, and how the “tyranny of choice” impacts finding a mate.