Breaking Up, Hooking Up
Uncanny Valley | WIRED9 Huhti 2021

Breaking Up, Hooking Up

Tech companies are very good at serving up personalized content based on what they know about you. But they're not very good at picking up on big, sudden changes in your life. For example, Google Photos can show you pictures of a loved one taken three years ago, and Pinterest can suggest wedding-themed photos when your special day is right around the corner. But what if that loved one is no longer in the picture? And what if that wedding's been canceled? Those algorithms that resurface memories aren’t very good at telling which of those previously happy memories might now be upsetting.

This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED senior writer Arielle Pardes joins us to talk about how the internet has changed the ways we love and remember. We also talk about the state of dating apps, and how technology has given us new ways to connect with potential loves, especially during the pandemic.

Show Notes:

Read Lauren’s story about how the internet doesn’t let you forget past relationships here. Read Arielle’s story about the boss of all dating apps here. Read Will Knight’s conversation with Kazuo Ishiguro here.

Recommendations:

Arielle recommends looking up your horoscope on AstrologyZone.com. Lauren recommends the book Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Mike recommends E. Jean Carroll’s Substack.

Arielle Pardes can be found on Twitter @pardesoteric. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

If you have feedback about the show, or just want to enter to win a $50 gift card, take our brief listener survey here.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Jaksot(431)

Everyone's Pumped About Heat Pumps

Everyone's Pumped About Heat Pumps

People everywhere are hot for heat pumps. These electric appliances—which perform the same heating and cooling tasks as traditional HVAC systems, just much more efficiently—have been outselling gas fu...

23 Touko 202437min

The End of Google Search As We Know It

The End of Google Search As We Know It

Google held its annual I/O developer event this week. The company gathered software developers, business partners, and folks from the technology press at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, Calif...

16 Touko 202436min

How Black Twitter Defined Culture

How Black Twitter Defined Culture

For all the influence Twitter has had on our culture, no community there has made quite as much impact as Black Twitter. The virtual community grew from a loose online hangout to an influential cultur...

9 Touko 202435min

Thinking About Buying a Hybrid Car? Listen Up

Thinking About Buying a Hybrid Car? Listen Up

Back in March, the US Environmental Protection Agency finalized a long in the works rule requiring automakers here to dramatically increase the number of battery-powered vehicles they’re putting on th...

2 Touko 202429min

We Demystify the Internet's Acronyms

We Demystify the Internet's Acronyms

Do you know what TCP/IP means? (Hint: you’re using it right now.) What about CDMA? Or GPT? While the concepts and the execution of these technologies are clear to most of us who have been on the inter...

25 Huhti 202446min

A Chat About Airchat

A Chat About Airchat

Silicon Valley tech types love their edgy new social media startups. The latest is Airchat, an audio-first social app that lets its users express their every thought by posting short snippets of audio...

18 Huhti 202433min

From WIRED Politics Lab: How Election Deniers Are Weaponizing Tech To Disrupt November

From WIRED Politics Lab: How Election Deniers Are Weaponizing Tech To Disrupt November

Election deniers are mobilizing their supporters and rolling out new tech to disrupt the November election. These groups are already organizing on hyperlocal levels, and learning to monitor polling pl...

11 Huhti 202431min

Shopping for a New Social Feed

Shopping for a New Social Feed

Hey, did you see the ad for that Bluetooth-enabled Shiatsu foot massager? How about the one for the organic mushroom supplement powder? They're probably not even the most interesting things you can bu...

4 Huhti 202430min