Burak Tapan

Enthusiasm for information / contact: [email protected]

[Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel]

I'm fascinated by cases where social technology--like social media, chatbots, and dating apps--backfires.

Why are these tools that promise freedom of participation, unlimited empathy, and an abundance of relationship options making people so miserable?

Well, a new paper offers a fresh take on why dating apps are ruining relationships. This paper explains that excessive romantic experience leads to a lack of satisfaction in the romantic world, with persistent searching, relationship instability, and delayed exit from dating markets. People don't want to commit because they become far too fussy.

Initial romantic experience or dating is beneficial, as it reveals unobserved dimensions of compatibility and facilitates learning about one's own romantic preferences. But, as experience accumulates, people raise their standards and this increases the likelihood that future partners will inevitably fall short.

When people are bombarded with choices, like on dating apps, users become very picky. You see this in dating discourse online, where people have developed insane standards. This absurdity went viral in the song about a woman looking for a guy is is 6'5" with a trust fund and blue eyes in finance--only about 100 men across the entire US fit that profile). It was also captured in the movie "Materialists" with people paying matchmakers to find partners that were nearly impossible to obtain.

Well, now there is a paper with a formal model explain why this mentality dominates the dating market:

https://t.co/GypjXPEZS5

[McKay Coppins @mckaycoppins]

Last year, I met a Mexican athlete who told me an incredible story—that he’d been kidnapped in 2023 and forced to compete for his life in a secret tournament of cartels. Once I started reporting, the story only got more surreal.

For the May issue:
https://t.co/O7YQwJRpu5

[The Atlantic @TheAtlantic]

Humanity thrives on friction—but AI is built to make everything seem easy, @raffi writes. In losing the unpredictable, chaotic, and surprising, AI has “stripped us of something profoundly human.” https://t.co/g4SFvXYrmm

[Carlos Aguilar @Carlos_Film]

https://t.co/bmgJ0nlAmh

[murаt kgirgin @muratkgirgin]

Duchamp v2.0

[Burak Tapan @pantarakbu]

@crochetina00 @IndieWire @crochetina00 I want you next to me at Omniplex :)

[IndieWire @IndieWire]

These are the 21 movies you need to see at Cannes: https://t.co/e3vN2Chdtv

[Killian Sundermann @killersundymann]

Guy who booked Kneecap for Coachella

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

This video has made the rounds on nearly every social media platform—and like others in its genre, it's led people to reduce fashion production to overly simplistic narratives.

So let’s take a look at why this bag might not be quite the same as the one you’d find at Hermès. 🧵

[Ben Stiller @BenStiller]

#Severance #Coachella2025 @Zedd 🙌

[BBC Sport @BBCSport]

🤯 He's too young to wear Leicester's online gambling sponsor on his shirt.

#LEINEW

[Rory Hearne @RoryHearneGaffs]

HOMES GAFFE 

Housing crisis is sick joke and nothing to laugh about after Trump quip, this Government is going backwards

This government’s housing plan is not working. But, instead of changing course, it wants to double down on failure

My Oped @TheSun

https://t.co/Q4TMcRFW3I

[NEON @neonrated]

ANORA’s Sean Baker is the first person in #Oscars history to win 4 Academy Awards for the same film in one night.

[LateNighter @latenightercom]

SNL debuts a new Elon Musk: Mike Myers

[Karl Sharro @KarlreMarks]

What is it about Western Europeans that makes them so violent? The school of WENA (Western Europe and North America) studies is accepting think pieces

[Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel]

“My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.”

[2000s @PopCulture2000s]

https://t.co/YeK1CAPrPS

[𝘀𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗮. @CinemaOnSundays]

La Dolce Vita poster in Italy, 1960

[Jesse Melia @elmeliac]

I love the way this poster implies that there was a dark side to Hitler we didn't know about.