Online dating, income inequality and Camera Control
→ Online Dating Caused a Rise in US Income Inequality, Research Paper Shows
Bloomberg reported on eye catching academic study this week. It would seem that dating app filters are widening inequality because they allow users to hide the accounts of people based on socio-economic markers like employment and graduate level education. The story reminded my of Bowker and Star’s book Sorting Things Out on the topic of data labelling. As the study highlights pretty pointedly, Bowker and Star were spot on in their assertion that all data classification is an inherently political decision – even if it doesn’t seem so at the time.
It also reminded me of the phenomenon through history that have resulted in an increased number of marriages across socio-economic groups. For example: urbanisation, widening participation in education and more women in the workplace. A decade ago, I think there would have been some hope that digital networks were going to support this phenomenon too. But if online dating is struggling to provide evidence of that, I am not sure where else we can look?
Gruber has a great write up of the new Camera Control button in his post on the iPhone 16. I currently use the action button –previously the silent on/off button until they realised no one has their phone on “loud” anymore– to launch pure, so having a dedicated button for this, which also acts as a shutter AND has the necessary APIs for third parties is pretty cool. Grumber also notes just how sophisticated the camera app on iOS is now. A point that supports my post on the beauty of pure camera.