Would you date a robot? British millennials would. A recent survey of 1,000 18- to 34-year-olds revealed that 26% of them would date a robot if it looked like a person and was their perfect match. Maybe it’s the ‘ish’ side of me, but I find this to be shocking. I know I might be a bit more resistant than the average millennial to how much technology has taken over aspects of our lives. I stayed off of social media until 2015, still use paper cookbooks, and have never done online dating. But all of that aside, I cannot believe such a big percentage of my peers would want this. The thought of replacing the few areas where we still have human interaction with technology is both sad and disturbing to me.
Don’t get me wrong, I definitely see the appeal of being with someone/something who is perfect for you. It would eliminate a lot of the discomfort of relationships like fighting and pain – no more conversations that make you insecure or leave you feeling like you are a bad person. It would allow you to control how and when you communicate so it’s the best balance of what you like. It takes away the element of timing because as your perfect match, they are ready for whatever you want when you want! It would also mean getting your perfect 10 in hotness, tailored to whatever shape, size and color is your thing.
But would that really make us more happy? Would we enjoy it or might it actually make us feel bored, emotionless, and insecure? We as humans are wired to feel a range of emotions. Would we still feel sadness, happiness, and excitement if we were with our perfect, robot match? Would we know what happiness is if we are never upset? In addition, studies researching the effects of social media are finding that social media can make people feel worse about themselves because of how we compare ourselves to what we see online. Social media almost acts like a “robot” version of each of us – a controlled, perfect version of ourselves. Couldn’t a perfect partner make us feel worse if we were around that all the time? Would the robot age or would we move towards death as it remained perfect? I don’t think dating a robot is as good as it sounds. I’m much more aligned to what they said in an episode of Sex and the City: “Maybe our mistakes are what make our fate. Without them, what would shape our lives?” I like dating imperfect people because after all, I’m one of them.
Leslie Delery 