What Makes Online Dating So Freakin’ Addictive?

On one side: excitement, excess, stimulation, mystery. On the other: safety, security, comfort, familiarity. Sex, romance, intimacy—all the things promised by finding the right match on an online dating site—drink from both. And so does the very experience of online dating. On the one hand finding a match and getting a lovely email from someone with a hot picture and an intriguing profile provides only a squirt of exitement, however much you may think you want a torrent. But on the other, well, there’s not a whole lot at risk. Sitting in your pj-s at your computer in the solitary comfort of your own home is pretty comfortable. You’re able to get a charge that is worth it because you are not really put that much on the line.

– From an article on Psychology Today about why online dating sites are designed to be play with our search for love by creating a “sweet spot” where the possibilities are endless while browsing in the comfort of our own home.

Similar read: Are We Wired to Love Google, Twitter and Grindr?

What If Your Soulmate Lived Halfway Across the World?

How far would you travel to meet the love of your life? Would it all be worth it? Those essential, life-affirming questions are explored in the short film by director James W. Griffiths. In its two and a half minutes, Splitscreen: A Love Story also brings forth the notion of parallel human experiences, that there is a similar underlying routine to our lives regardless of where we live (especially if that happens to be a civilized Western city…)

Splitscreen was filmed entirely using a Nokia N8 mobile phone and was the winner of the Nokia Shorts competition in 2011.

Gay Couples Photos: Love Me Like It’s Forever Valentine’s

For Valentine’s Day I decided to compile every gay couple photo I have ever favorited on Tumblr and Flickr. I liked these two photos at completely different times without realizing it was the same gorgeous couple posing in an intimate embrace. It just goes to show that there was something about the love between them that really grabbed me.

All these images prove that love comes in all shapes and sizes, from black and white to full-on technicolor. It can even involve more than two people. Like Carrie Bradshaw once said, “love is the only label that never goes out of style.”

It can be sweet:

It can be steamy:

It can be both.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Enjoy.

E-motional: There Hasn’t Been a Day That I Stopped Wanting You

The series E-motional features inspirational or disappointing love messages sent through mobile devices, e-mail or other instant online correspondence. Confessions 2.0. if you will. A refreshing and far more romantic alternative to the bombardment of crude booty calls, sexts and cyber one-line pick-ups that seem to be the norm nowadays.

Let me know if you have an image that you’d like to add to E-motional. Let’s hear it for modern romance (and heartbreak).

The Three Types of Male Species

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