Technological innovation has brought progress to all aspects of human society, with the exception of love. Technology upgrades, cuts love, this is the history we are experiencing. After the epidemic is over, for the rest of their lives, people pay more attention to family affection, but ignore love even more.
I don't know when marriage began to plague this generation of young people.
Everyone has a few friends around them who have made it clear that they will not get married.
In the era of mobile Internet, the way of making friends is expanding, but there are fewer and fewer people who can fall in love.
If you want to go on a blind date, there are countless cases of pig killing on online websites. And offline, even if it is a border town in Hebei Province, an offline blind date agency on the grounds of "matchmaker service", its essence is to charge your membership fee at different levels.
Annual fee members worth 1,000 yuan will only match users with two to three members every year. In addition, there are high-end VIPs with a higher price, as well as high-end services that "teach you how to fall in love by hand".
For ordinary users, if they don't pay money, they will not be eligible for matching. If you choose ordinary members, the matching object may be the "leftovers" of VIP users, only looking at the amount of payment and not the degree of matching between the two.
Dating blind dates has been completely turned into a business.
And those marriages taught "hand-in-hand", does anyone really dare to live their lives in such a marriage?
Once upon a time the carriage was slow, the letters were far away, and there was only enough time to love one person in a lifetime; Nowadays, the Internet is very fast, the mobile phone is very close, and you can love many people, but it is difficult to find a person's heart in the world. Is there still a gap for love in a society coerced by technology? The answer for many people is no.
Wang Wenbo, an associate professor at the Chinese University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong, used artificial intelligence to do a study, from 1990 to 2020, love-themed songs declined year by year, and the top songs after 2015, the love theme accounted for less than 50%, a decrease of 20% from 10 years ago.
In his book "The End of Love", the French sociologist Iros said that capitalism and the culture of modernity are changing our lives and romantic relationships. Compared to the destruction of romance by technological progress, the culture of capitalism and modernity is far less effective.
1
The matchmaker is really hot, and it is really difficult to get married
In the past two years, there have always been phenomenal Internet celebrities out of the circle, or cities or people.
In the first half of 2023, Shandong Zibo barbecue will be out of the circle, and during the May Day holiday and Qingming holiday in the same year, the number of hotel bookings and scenic spot ticket bookings in Zibo will increase exponentially. Driven by Zibo barbecue, Zibo's GDP in 2023 will be 456.179 billion yuan, with a GDP growth rate of 5.5%.
At the end of 2023, the ice city of Harbin suddenly exploded, attracting countless tourists to check in the ice and snow world, followed by Internet hot words such as "southern small potato". According to the data, during the New Year's Day holiday last year, Harbin Ice and Snow World received 163,200 tourists, a year-on-year increase of 435%, and its revenue was 46.18 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 494%.
In the first half of 2024, Gansu Tianshui Malatang will become popular, although the cycle and popularity are not as good as the first two, but many cities across the country have opened "Tianshui Malatang" stores. One of the reasons why the heat of Tianshui in Gansu has not lasted for a long time is due to a "matchmaker" from Kaifeng.
According to the data, as of March 26, the popularity of travel searches in Kaifeng Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City Scenic Area has increased by more than 7 times month-on-month in the past week, and the number of ticket bookings has increased by more than 2 times month-on-month. According to the "2024 Qingming Festival Tourism Forecast Insights", the number of orders in Kaifeng increased by more than 5 times year-on-year, and it was shortlisted for the third place in the "dark horse tourist destination" during the Qingming holiday.
Kaifeng has become another check-in place for young people, on Douyin, Wang Po said that the number of views of the media's related content has already reached billions, and Wang Po's own social account has also increased its fans by more than two million in just ten days.
Young people who keep shouting that they don't get married, why can they become popular with an Internet celebrity matchmaker?
"Wang Po Said Media" was originally an offline blind date column of Long Live Mountain and Great Song Martial Arts City in Kaifeng City, Henan Province, and the program was hosted by Zhao Mei, which was called "a down-to-earth version of "If You Are Honest, Do Not Disturb". Due to the popularity of the Kaifeng "Wang Po Says the Matchmaker" program, Pingdingshan, Zhangzhou and other places have also emerged with their own unique imitation cultural trends of "Wang Po Says the Matchmaker".
The princess on the stage wears a red flower, and her red and green dress is almost the same as the image of the matchmaker in the TV series. Wang Po called the girls who came to power "goddaughters" and the boys "virtuous sons-in-law". The process of the program is that the girls first come to the stage, introduce their general situation and mate selection needs, the boys in the audience raise their hands on stage, and then Wang Po "personally inspects people", and the two sides communicate and match.
In addition, Wang Po is experienced and knows what kind of words to say at what time, although there are many people in the audience, she has never been embarrassed and cold, which also makes Wang Po say that the media has phenomenal traffic.
For those young people who dislike blind date sites, offline blind dates should be another good choice, but after being coerced by traffic, such offline blind dates seem to have gradually changed their taste. "Blind dates are only for traffic", "outrageous remarks are frequent", young people no longer like it.
According to the data, on April 11, 2024, it was reported that the popularity of the "Wang Po Talking Media" program in Kaifeng Long Live Mountain Martial Arts City Scenic Area gradually declined, the audience was relatively reduced, and there were more men and fewer women on stage.
When the traffic is large, any bird will fly, and the Internet celebrity with more than 2 million fans took Mai to the stage, and the team took this opportunity to start the live broadcast, and after tasting the sweetness, it was out of control. The anchors chiseled the wall and stole the light, and collected wave after wave of traffic from Wang Po, which was huge, and it seemed to be the same as the ramen brother and porridge cake wheel in previous years.
According to the data, searching for "Wang Po Says Media" on Feigua data, as of April this year, there are more than 999 related talents, 34 live broadcasts, and the most popular live broadcast room has more than 3 million viewers.
2
Thunder people and thunder things, make money with love
With more and more people gaining popularity and earning traffic, Wang Po's blind date has gradually changed its taste, and Wang Po was once searched for several Internet celebrities who brought microphones and equipment to the stage and pretended to be blind dates.
In the fast-paced era, the fire is fast and the coolness is fast, and the frequent rollover incidents are easy to make the public lose patience. But the most outrageous thing is the remarks that seem a little "incredible".
From April 17th to 21st, Zhao Mei, the princess of Kaifeng, left Henan for the first time and came to Jiangxi to hold offline blind date activities. The frequent golden sentences of individual female guests on stage made Wang Po reap a wave of sky-high traffic again.
The local matchmaker in Jiangxi said that the bride price is generally about 380,008; The female guest on stage said, "I want to find someone who is handsome and rich." ”；“ I'm emotionally unstable and looking for someone who is local and emotionally stable. ”；“ I am a salesman with a monthly income of 20,000 yuan, so I hope to find a man with a monthly salary of more than 25,000 yuan. ”……
The frequent golden sentences even shocked the well-informed Wang Po.
In addition, there was also a man Liu in Kaifeng who went to the stage on a blind date after getting married. Liu said that he was willing to quit his job in Zhengzhou to accompany the girl to Sichuan, and was jokingly called "running for love" by netizens. Afterwards, a woman, Xiao Xue, claimed to be Liu's wife, and posted a marriage certificate, saying that she was studying in Japan, but her husband went on a blind date behind her back, making her "cry so much that she couldn't stop crying".
and during the May Day period, on the stage of the Anhui Bozhou version of "Wang Po Said Matchmaker", a girl who claimed to be 3 months pregnant took the stage on a blind date with the guy. The host asked the guy "It's acceptable to divorce without children, why can't you accept it after 3 months of pregnancy", and "Wang Po" also said that "men must be responsible first, don't mind this problem".
These events spread to the Internet, all of which caused heated discussions in the society, and "outrageous incidents" that deviated from the normal rhythm occurred frequently, coupled with the decline in traffic popularity, people gradually realized that the bridge of "marriage first and love later" does not seem to be as beautiful as described in literary works, and blind dates will not change qualitatively because of changes in methods.
In the fast-paced internet era, romance seems to be really difficult.
According to the China Statistical Yearbook (2022), as of 2021, there were about 239 million single people over the age of 15 in China. At the same time, the age of marriage and childbearing among young people in mainland China has generally been delayed, according to the "Chinese Population Census Yearbook-2020", the average age of first marriage in mainland China in 2020 is 28.67 years, an increase of 3.78 years from 24.89 years in 2010.
Young people are reluctant to get married, let alone go on blind dates. Behind not getting married is the pressure of life that needs to be faced all the time, and the reluctance to go on a blind date is whether online or offline, blind dates are full of minefields.
Last year, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee conducted online "cloud interviews" with three institutions: Baihe Jiayuan, My Lord Liangyuan, and Zhenai.com; During 315 this year, a number of dating websites were also named and criticized.
Revenue growth, negative public opinion, development prospects...... These problems have always been entangled in the entire marriage and love service market, the early years of the pig killing plate once made the blind date website scolded to the end, in the black cat complaints, only the Century Jiayuan family, its complaints are more than 7000, Zhenai network complaints more than 3000.
The marriage and love websites represented by "Zhenai.com", "Lily.com" and "Century Jiayuan" have gradually turned blind dates into kryptonite games. For example, in the VIP rating service, some users even shelled out a membership fee of up to six figures. According to a report released by the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission, 24.2% of consumers spend 15,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan on online dating platforms.
3
Scumbags and scumbags, deceiving for love
Among them, the most famous is the "Zhai Xinxin" marriage fraud case of Jiayuan of the century.
On September 7, 2017, Su Xiangmao, known as a "genius programmer", left a suicide note before committing suicide, telling that he was extorted 10 million yuan by his "poisonous wife" Zhai Xinxin, and had no way out but to choose to give up his life.
In March of that year, the two met because of the "Century Jiayuan", and for Zhai Xinxin, Su Xiangmao spent tens of thousands of yuan in membership fees on the platform. Soon after, the two fell in love, and after Su Xiangmao took her to meet her parents, the relationship between the two also developed to the purpose of marriage.
In the process of dating, he bought her a million-dollar Tesla, and luxury goods such as brand-name bags and jewelry were at his fingertips. In Hainan, Su Xiangmao bought a house for Zhai Xinxin for 3.2 million yuan and wrote the woman's name.
According to statistics, in the first two months of their relationship, Su Xiangmao spent more than 3 million yuan for Zhai Xinxin. But the day before receiving the certificate, Zhai Xinxin suddenly revealed that she had a history of marriage, and the relationship between the two was cracked.
For emotional reasons, Su Xiangmao still wanted to continue, and he didn't want this huge relationship to end in vain, but he was rejected. Zhai Xinxin said, give me 50,000 yuan a day until I agree to marry you.
transferred countless 50,000 yuan, and the two got married. But only ten days after getting married, Zhai Xinxin proposed for divorce because "his chat records with others are very ambiguous." In order to maintain his marriage, Su Xiangmao signed a guarantee that if he wanted to divorce on his own initiative, he would suffer huge claims.
After the relationship broke down, Zhai Xinxin continued to put pressure, saying that if Su Xiangmao didn't buy her a villa, the two would divorce. At this time, Su Xiangmao, who had recognized it, accepted it, and the two had a showdown, but Zhai Xinxin took out the guarantee again, claiming 10 million yuan for mental damages.
She threatened Su Xiangmao's career, saying that Su Xiangmao's Internet phone was gray income and illegal operation, and she continued to escalate the "hush money", asking for 10 million compensation and real estate, otherwise she would call the police.
Su Xiangmao gave her a house and gave her the only remaining 6.6 million in cash. And as Zhai Xinxin issued an ultimatum: if the last 3.4 million is not enough, he will be sued. Su Xiangmao posted Zhai Xinxin's personal information on his APP, then walked to the rooftop and jumped.
From 2017 to 2018, Su Xiangmao's family entrusted a lawyer to prosecute Zhai Xinxin.
On March 31, 2023, the Chaoyang District People's Court of Beijing announced the verdict, and the first-instance judgment ruled that Zhai Xinxin should return nearly 10 million yuan in cash and cars to Su Xiangmao's family and revoke the personal ownership of Zhai Xinxin's two properties in Hainan and Beijing; On March 7, 2024, Weibo ID "Su Xiangmao's brother Su Xianglong" posted on Weibo that Zhai Xinxin's suspected extortion case has been transferred to the court.
A genius programmer fell, and Su Xiangmao was also called "the early love brain of the Internet" by many netizens.
In this regard, Jiayuan said that the company's membership services are divided into online and offline, and Zhai Xinxin chooses the latter, with one-to-one service of matchmakers, you need to register as a member with your ID card and household registration book, fill in your marital status, and you need to sign a letter of guarantee to ensure that the information is true and valid.
However, Zhai Xinxin concealed her marriage history, and the platform failed to successfully review and control, so she also had to pay some responsibility. Information asymmetry, efforts to earn membership fees, uneven follow-up services, and even endanger the physical and mental health of users.
The Internet blind date platform led by Jiayuan, Baihe.com, and Zhenai.com has completely changed its flavor. At the same time as being complained by consumers, the story of blind date is no longer so easy to tell.
The times are different, from the past, the road is far away, and the era of only loving one person in a lifetime is gone. This is the biggest emotion of young people about contemporary love.
In such a rhythm of the times, true love is becoming more and more difficult to find, more and more interests are linked to marriage and love, and young people no longer regard starting a family and inheriting their ancestors as a necessary thing in life, and the marriage rate and fertility rate continue to decline.
There is no romance in the Internet age, how can this generation rest their bodies and minds and move towards the future?