For my paradigm shift paper and TED talk, I will be analyzing the shift from traditional, in-person dating methods to online dating, as a result of the internet and the creation of smartphones.
While researching for my topic, I developed a thesis. Each of the following sources provide valuable evidence for the argument presented in my thesis.
My thesis is as follows: Dating and mating, due to the creation of the internet and smartphones, now takes place almost entirely online, altering both the outcomes of relationships and routes of meeting and interacting with potential love interests.
“Marital satisfaction and break-ups differ across on-line and off-line meeting venues” John Cacioppo, University of Chicago, PNAS Journal
- Provides scientific evidence of the alteration of marriage outcomes due to online dating services
- Provides reasons as to why marriage outcomes differ
- Explicitly acknowledges a paradigm shift (direct quote from lead researchers)
“How Online Dating Changed Romance and Relationships Forever” Sorex
- Source itself is highly informal/inappropriate (written in blog format), but it provides helpful external sources (references at end of blog)
- Explicitly explains traditional dating pre-internet, post-internet dating, and what changed (helpful in defining pre/post paradigm shift)
2 Pew Research Resources: “15% of American Adults Have Used Online Dating Sites or Mobile Dating Apps” and “10 facts about Americans and online dating“
- Provides statistical, reputable information to prove shift
- Increase in online dating platform usage
- Contributes statistics about public’s awareness of success of online dating
“Meeting online has become the most popular way U.S. couples connect, Stanford sociologist finds” Stanford News
- Acknowledges the trend of online dating as contemporary means of meeting significant others
- Addresses the stigma of meeting strangers online, and how this has worn off overtime as online dating becomes the main medium
- Specifically attributes the change to two causes: smartphones and the internet (my main claim in my thesis)
I this this paradigm shift is extremely relevant, and will make for a great TED talk/Paper. It is specific, but broad enough where you can create a well rounded argument. Your sources accurately reflect a paradigm shift, and the topic will be engaging to the class.
I think these sources sound like they’ll be really helpful in your argument. I can see that you have a strong thesis already. For the timeline aspect, you could focus on the different generations and how so many boomers’ relationships end in divorce versus that of the millennials who use online dating. Overall I think this will be a very strong paper.
Your clear, set in stone thesis will most definitely build your paper up for success. Also, I love how you organized your resources by the specific significant information that they to the paper. I would definitely ask Dr. O’Hara about whether or not resources that are blogs/don’t hail from a database are allowed to be used (I’m kind of the in the same boat where little to no information about my topic exists besides in the form of OP-eds). Overall, great topic!