Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg (4 stars)

This is a great read, and I was surprised to find it is actually very scientific. Ansari and Klinenberg (who is a sociology professor) conducted a lot of research as well as literature review, and present the information in a engaging format with plenty of humour sprinkled throughout. Aziz reads like how he speaks, I think the audio book might be even better.

Some of my favourite quotes below.

It made me wonder whether our ability and desire to interact with strangers is another muscle that risks atrophy in the smartphone world.

On the amount of time to wait before texting back:

“There is this desire, for me at least, to have the upper hand. I have to have it. So if I text someone, and they wait ten minutes to text me back, I wait twenty.

The amazing things people write in their profiles:

“No fatties, no alcoholics,” proclaimed another. “I’m currently cleaning up toxic waste” is how one man described his professional life, while another described himself as “an executive by day, a wild man by night,” and a third proclaimed, “I’m interested in all aspects of data processing.”

On the fundamental problems with online dating:

But our research also convinced me that too many people spend way too much time doing the online part of online dating, not the dating part.

4 stars.