Technology has played a major role in our romantic lives since the invention of the telephone. But in the decades since, some watershed moments have shifted the terrain of dating and relationships. Pornography migrated to the internet; online dating shifted from our desktop computers to our mobile devices; social media apps made it easier to…
If you play Call of Duty, you may be aware of an online ecosystem rich with “cheats” — shortcuts that players circulate to capitalize on the game’s glitches and thwart some of its toughest obstacles. Something similar exists among those swiping for love on dating apps. In the past year, Ali Jackson, a 36-year-old dating…
After Melissa, a 35-year-old event planner living in Chicago, masturbates, she sometimes studies a chart that resembles the output of a heart rate monitor or that of a seismograph capturing an earthquake. The data is generated by her vibrator, the Lioness, which measures her arousal and uploads information about her orgasm patterns to the company’s…
In June, LeRoy Romero drove four hours from his hometown, Peoria, Ariz., to an Applebee’s in Mexicali, Mexico, to meet Brenda Ochoa for the first time. It was a blind date, set up by a mutual friend who had sensed a potential match. Going in, Mr. Romero, who works as a mortgage loan originator, knew…
The soccer World Cup final in December 2022 ended with a nail-biting win for Argentina. For Yuna Yang and Christopher Mun-Yin Seck, the day was exciting for other reasons, too: After watching the match at a private club, the two spent hours together in New York, where they both live, and by the end of…
Katherine Ward Tsyrlin was friends with one of Alan Gerard Harbron’s roommates, and when she heard stories about him and how much he cared about his friendships, her interest was piqued. The roommate mentioned that Mr. Harbron was using dating apps, including Hinge. So to ensure they would meet — and to avoid asking the…
Getting sick is not usually something for which people are grateful. But Victoria Virginia Voos and Corey Alexander Buresch certainly are. “It seemed like illness, one way or another, kept our relationship progressing to the next level,” Ms. Voos said. The two began chatting on the dating app WooPlus, which markets itself as “the dating…
For years, my husband told me, “You’re the love of my life. Nothing you do could ever make me leave you.” Then he met someone else, and it was over. As promised, it was nothing I had done. It had been the second marriage for both of us, and he had come with young daughters,…
Carissa Anne Bauman had no idea who Dylan Taylor Jakobsen was when he handed her a flier on Dec. 26, 2010, outside El Corazon, a downtown Seattle music club, while she and a friend waited in line to see Scene Aesthetic, a local acoustic rock band. “I was out there slinging fliers, trying to get…
On Wednesday night, a throng of actors, cycling through a swirl of events — awards season, New York Fashion Week and the Super Bowl — assembled in Midtown Manhattan, wearing Chanel, dressed by Chanel and for Chanel. Over cocktails, guests mingled for the opening of the brand’s first U.S. watch and fine jewelry flagship boutique…