Forget dating apps: Here’s how the net’s newest matchmakers help you find love

There's a growing covid outbreak in China

Sponsored by Hewlett Packard Enterprise The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Dating app fatigue 10.25.21 Good morning and welcome to a new week! Today: why some people are ditching dating apps and opting for online matchmaking services instead. Also: China is wrestling with a growing covid outbreak. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Forget dating apps: Here’s how the net’s newest matchmakers help you find love   App burnout: People are getting tired of dating apps. They’re quick and easy to use, but critics say their design and their focus on images reduces people to caricatures. There’s an overwhelming amount of choice, and geographic parameters can worsen the dating pool. Women and people of color often receive abusive messages. The solution? People have been turning to old-fashioned matchmaking, mostly through ad hoc efforts on platforms like Twitter and TikTok, and even email newsletters. Unlike dating apps, with their endless menu of eligible suitors, these approaches are hyperfocused on one person at a time, letting people's personalities and individuality shine through. There's a large market for them: the millennials who relied on dating apps are now older and often seeking longer-term relationships, while Gen Zers say they find dating apps uncool.  Don’t weep for Tinder: Despite the fatigue, dating apps won't go anywhere. A Pew Research study released just a month before the pandemic shut down most of the world found that 30% of Americans had reported using one. And while everyone likes to dunk on these apps, 20% of young and LGBT people have entered a long-term relationship with someone they met that way. Read the full story. —Tanya Basu We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + We need, indeed we deserve, a muppets version of the Lord of the Rings.   + You could lose ages playing with these fun math-based drawing tools.   + Impressed with the ingenuity of this person who used Marvel heroes as inspiration for his outfits.   + The stories behind LA's vanity license plates.   + A ton of funny cat videos. What's not to like?!   + Thanksgiving doesn't have to be unhealthy! These recipes look delicious as well as nutritious. In just 3 weeks, hone your cyber-resiliency strategy at CyberSecure.  Every day, cyberthreat actors are exploiting new vulerabilities. Join our premier cybersecurity conference for insight into the evolving threat landscape and the emerging technologies that can help prevent an attack. Don't wait to get actionable strategies to help protect your organization from an attack. Register now. Sponsor Message Getting the most from your data-driven transformation: 10 key principles The importance of data to today's businesses can't be overstated. Studies show data-driven companies are 58% more likely to beat revenue goals than non-data-driven companies and 162% more likely to significantly outperform laggards. Best practices like determining what makes data valuable and creating company cultures that promote data sharing will enable businesses to embrace data in the modern enterprise. Learn more. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 There's a growing covid outbreak in China It's locked down thousands of people in the northwest to try to contain it. (Bloomberg $)   + The Delta variant will test China's commitment to "zero covid." (NYT $)   + The Beijing marathon has been postponed. (BBC)   + Cases are rising in Germany. (NYT $)   + Inside the messy race to develop a covid vaccine. (Esquire)   + What we can learn about vaccinating kids from Canada. (Wired UK)   2 Facebook's misinformation problem is even worse in India That's the conclusion of its own internal research. (NYT $)   + Internal documents show Facebook knew it was helping radicalize US users into following QAnon. (NBC)   + Facebook's decision-making is often swayed by political considerations. (WSJ $)   + One fundamental problem with social media? We just aren't meant to have this many conversations with this many people. (The Atlantic $)   + Improve Facebook for yourself by making your feed chronological. (Wired $)   + How Facebook missed the warning signs ahead of January 6. (WP $)  3 Tesla had to roll back a software update Silicon Valley's "move fast and break things" philosophy doesn't seem to translate so well to cars. (The Verge)   4 Saudi Arabia says it'll reach "net zero" emissions by 2060 But behind the scenes, it's lobbying to water down an upcoming UN report on global warming. (AP)   + Saudi Arabia is resisting calls to stop investing in new oil and gas projects. (WSJ $)   5 Russia's internet crackdown is fully underway The process kicked off in 2019 and represents possibly the most ambitious digital censorship effort outside China. (NYT $)   6 Cops took down a ransomware gang by using its own tactics against it A multi-nation law enforcement group managed to compromise Revil's backups.  (Ars Technica)   + Ransomware hackers are increasingly nervous. (NBC)  7 People of color fear Brazil's adoption of facial recognition  The potential for abuse is huge. (Rest of World)   + Making face recognition less biased doesn’t make it less scary. (TR)   + We're increasingly living in a high-tech dystopia. Here's how to push back. (Wired $)   8 We are buying too much stuff 🛍️ The supply chain crisis might be a good time to rethink our addiction to shopping. (The Atlantic $)   9 How to deradicalize an incel Violent misogyny has become one of the biggest terror threats in many countries, yet the authorities are still mostly turning a blind eye. (Wired UK)   10 Remote work is changing the suburbs They're becoming more like mini cities. (Recode) Quote of the day "Right now, Mark [Zuckerberg] is unaccountable. He has all the control.." —Whistleblower Frances Haugen identifies one of the biggest barriers to progress at Facebook in an interview with The Observer. Top image credit: MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW Please send Tom Bombadil to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up today Build your strategic defense again cybercriminals Join us virtually | November 16-17, 2021 Register now Want to change how you receive these emails? 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