Modern Romance

In Modern Romance, comedian Aziz Ansari teams up with sociologist Eric Klinenberg to investigate the ways dating has changed in modern times, with shifting social mores and advancing technology. We have more choices than ever before and more time before we're expected to settle down, which means that our goals have changed, as well as how we pursue those goals.

All in all, this book made me glad that I'm happily married. Ansari's life sounds exhausting, and not just the dating aspect of it. He's so determined to have the best of everything that he invests most of his energy into researching options. If it takes him most of a day to decide where to go get lunch (only to discover that his restaurant of choice is closed) you can only imagine how frustrating and unsatisfying his dating life must be.

There was some interesting information in this book, and Ansari definitely has a gift for presenting it in an interesting way. Reading this book was a lot of fun. But mostly from the perspective of an outsider studying an alien culture. I dabbled with OKCupid back in 2009, and that was bad enough. I can't imagine having to deal with all the rest of it now.

So, yeah, I alternated between horrified and smug while I was reading this. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy it. I definitely did. But I probably wasn't really the intended audience.

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