Has technology changed love?

Dinner Date on the mobile phone - Technology changed loveMany times we talk about how this age of technology in which we live in changed our world.

The advent of Internet social networking and mobile phones has changed how humans interact with each other and how they stay connected.

Multitasking and filling up time with communication technology challenges actual productiveness.

The use of the postal service to mail cards and letters, telephone books, newspapers and telegrams have plummeted. Book stores and music stores are no longer needed.

Wi-Fi technologies change how public transportation works. Robotics has changed the workplace providing for some tasks to be completed by automated systems. Applications and online shopping allow purchases to be made using a bar code app or PayPal.

The foundation of privacy principles are forever changed with photo-sharing sites such as Instagram and Flickr.

People sleep less, work less and spend less time physically together socializing and communicating when using technology.

In fact, the age of technology changed many things.

But have you ever asked yourself: Has technology changed love?

“In our tech-driven, interconnected world, we’ve developed new ways and rules to court each other, but the fundamental principles of love have stayed the same” – says anthropologist Helen Fisher.

Helen Fisher studies gender differences and the evolution of human emotions. She’s best known as an expert on romantic love.

She describes love as a universal human drive (stronger than the sex drive; stronger than thirst or hunger; stronger perhaps than the will to live), and her many areas of inquiry shed light on timeless human mysteries like why we choose one partner over another.

Her classic study, Anatomy of Love, first published in 1992, has just been re-issued in a fully updated edition.

This updated edition including her recent neuroimaging research on lust, romantic love and attachment as well as discussions of sexting, hooking up, friends with benefits, other contemporary trends in courtship and marriage, and a dramatic current trend she calls “slow love.”

In her TED-talk she says:

“How is technology changing love? I’m going to say almost not at all. I study the brain. I and my colleagues have put over 100 people into a brain scanner – people who had just fallen happily in love, people who had just been rejected in love and people who are in love long-term.

And it is possible to remain “in love” long-term. And I’ve long ago maintained that we’ve evolved three distinctly different brain systems for mating and reproduction: sex drive, feelings of intense romantic love and feelings of deep cosmic attachment to a long-term partner.

And together, these three brain systems — with many other parts of the brain — orchestrate our sexual, our romantic and our family lives.”

Watch this interesting and provocative TED – talk to the end for a lively discussion with love expert Esther Perel.

She has an interesting question for Fisher: “When the context changes, it still means that the nature of love remains the same?”

Hear the answer to her question now.

We think that this is a very interesting topic to talk about!

Maybe you agree with Helen Fisher and Ester Perel,  maybe not.

Share your thoughts with us in the comments bellow! We would love to read your opinion! Thanks! 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *