In the rush to find love it would seem that more and more of us are making use of technology and other contemporary methods to find love - one of these happens to be our televisions! There are an increasing number of TV series that are based around finding love through dating; although none of them are quite the same as the series that we grew accustomed to such as Blind Date or Singled Out.
One of the latest TV series to grace our screens is the infamous First Dates - a show that takes two singles that have never met and places them in a relaxed environment, allowing the rest of us (the audience) to wait and see what happens.
Television - What's the Attraction?
What is it about television that attracts us so? Television shows us the best and the worst of what it is that we want to see, without us ever having to leave our homes or our sofas - it also allows us to satisfy our curiosity (otherwise known as nosiness) and can educate us in a way that we find interesting and relevant to our everyday lives.
Why Choose Television?
There are loads of different methods of finding love - so why do some choose a mass medium such as television to bare their romantic soul? Online dating, speed dating and everyday chance encounters are all great in their own way but I'm not sure I understand the appeal; sure you get to be on television and you have 'five minutes of fame' but is that all there is to it?
Fame or Fervour?
Personally, I feel that the majority of the contestant on shows such as First Dates, Take Me Out and various other dating-related shows are only there because they enjoy the attention that they receive whilst on the show, and from "fans" or "followers" that they may pick up due to it. Thinking about it logically - what are the chances of each contestant actually meeting 'the one', or even somebody that they're really, truly interested in? This is why I believe that the contestants are interested in the limited level of 'fame' (or infamy in some cases) that starring on television can bring rather than finding their flame.
However, I have no doubt that there are those who are on a serious quest to find somebody that they wish to spend the rest of their lives with - and they just happen to have pursued love through the use of TV. Shows such as The Undateables, in my eyes, are proof of this; the participants in this TV series are serious about finding love and many of them advertise the fact they aren't looking for something as simple as a relationship but instead they are looking for a partner with whom they can settle down and marry.
In an ideal world each and every one of us would find love through conventional means and it wouldn't include an arduous search or a journey that can last almost a lifetime; but our world isn't always ideal and so if society feels pushed to explore new methods of finding love then so be it. I strongly believe that there is someone for everyone, whether that person is on the other side of the world or the other side of your television set - but we shouldn't abuse technology to gain a little recognition.
Brett Harding is the Managing Director at Lovestruck, a website for online dating. He understands the difficulty that finding love can pose and that sometimes atypical methods must be explored before love is found.