Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Brooks on the mating market

David Brooks writes about the New York Mag sex diaries, technology, and behavioral reactions of young singles today to the lack of courtship structure. Things like texting a "backup" when on a date with somebody else. My favorite quote: "Social life comes to resemble economics, with people enmeshed in blizzards of supply and demand signals amidst a universe of potential partners."

I wonder what Gary Becker would have to say about this. Economists typically believe more information is better, but then you toss in the part about atrophying social mores and constraints, and it's not clear what the result is.