As Thanksgiving is upon us, it’s time to put aside our pride and simply be thankful for the blessings we have in life: our health, our family… and Tinder?

In this day and age, we can do just about anything with technology: read a book without flipping a single page, have groceries delivered with the click of a button, see our friends on the other side of the world on our screens, look at all of our ex’s Facebook pictures (wait a minute… don’t do that!), and even find a date.

As Aziz Ansari noted in his recent book “Modern Romance,” a 1932 study showed that one-third of married couples had previously lived within just a five-block radius of each other.  Case in point: My parents were next-door neighbors, and they celebrated their 35th anniversary this year.

Let’s compare that to my own dating experiences.  I sign up for a dating site like OkCupid.  I email a number of people.  Some respond, some don’t.  I line up dates with those who do.  The end.  Quite a different story, huh?

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, in addition to being thankful for my wonderful friends and family, my health, and the success of my business and my clients’ relationships, I’d also like to share five reasons we should be thankful this year, as it relates to dating:

1. Online dating exists.

Do you think the Pilgrims had a way to meet people across the Mayflower, let alone across the world?  Their best place to flirt was likely over the ear of corn they were growing, not on their couch in their pajamas using some new-fangled technology we like to call the Interwebs.  Now it’s easy as pumpkin pie.

2. We have options.

We live in a time when, for most of us, the choice of the person we date and/or marry is ours and ours alone.  Of course, parents have some influence in this decision, as do friends, but you ultimately get to choose the person who makes you the happiest.  Arranged marriages were the norm worldwide until the 18th century.  I feel lucky to live in this day and age.

3. Interracial, interfaith, and same-sex couples are more widely accepted.

A study published in November of 2013 by Kevin Lewis, a UC San Diego sociologist, suggests that racial barriers to romance are not as insurmountable as we might suppose.  He did his research by analyzing the patterns of 126,134 OKCupid users in a two-and-a-half month period.  He found that, while people often still mainly reach out to others of their own racial background, they are, however, more likely to return a cross-race email than previous research would have led to us to expect.  And, once they have replied to a suitor from a different race, people are then themselves more likely to cross racial lines and initiate interracial contact in the future.  OkCupid also now has so many additional choices for sexual orientation, ranging from sapiosexual (someone who finds intelligence the most sexually attractive feature… guilty as charged) to homoflexible.  We’ve come such a long way… the rest is just gravy at this point.

4. There is more gender equality, especially with online dating.

While I am still a proponent of chivalry when it comes to opening doors and paying on a first date, I also strongly encourage women to reach out first online with a short and sweet message if someone strikes their fancy.

5. Dating can be fun!

I know it’s sometimes exhausting after a long day of work to motivate yourself to meet someone new, especially when you just want to be a couch (mashed?) potato.  But, it’s also exciting to think that someone you meet—maybe the next date—could alter the rest of your life in some way.  Maybe you’ll get butterflies, maybe you’ll learn a new recipe, or maybe you’ll simply hone your conversation skills.  Regardless of the outcome, take advantage of the fact that you get to meet new and interesting people.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!  Happy dating!

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Every Thanksgiving, my family has a tradition (as I’m sure many do) of going around the table and listing what we’re thankful for this year. I couldn’t ask for a more poignant way to show my thanks.

This year, of course I am thankful for my parents, sister, and friends, all of whom have supported me through thick and thin, even when I told them that I was quitting my job in economics almost three years ago to start my own business. (Although, my parents were a lot more supportive after they learned that I had bought myself health insurance!) But this year, I am thankful for something else as well –- technology. In this day and age, we can do almost anything with technology: read a book without flipping a single page, text a friend to let him know we’re running late, look at all of our ex’s Facebook pictures (wait a minute… that’s not advised!), and even find a date.

In our parents’ and grandparents’ generations, it wasn’t quite as simple as:
1) Sign up for an online dating site.
2) Email some people.
3) Meet for a drink.

My parents were next-door neighbors. My mom was a teacher, and my dad was home from law school for the summer. (My mom is five and a half years older than my dad!) She always saw this guy next door looking out the upstairs window while studying and wondered who he was. One day, my dad’s brother said hello as she came out of her apartment. She asked who he was, and he told her that he lived next door. She said, “No – that other guy lives next door,” and my uncle informed her that he was the “other guy’s” brother. My mom, chutzpah and all, then said, “I don’t normally do things like this, but would you and your brother like to come with my friend and me to a concert tonight?” The whole night, my mom didn’t know who she was supposed to be with – my uncle or my dad. At the end of the night, my uncle said to my mom, “I’ll call you.” Scandal of all scandals, my dad beat him to the punch and called my mom first. (It was all good. My uncle was only in town visiting.) And the rest is history. They celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary this year.

Let’s compare that to our experiences today. We sign up for an online dating site. We email people who interest us. (I do advise that both men and women make the initial contact.) We go out for coffee or a drink, and we decide if we want to let a relationship form. Easy as pumpkin pie.

So this Thanksgiving, in addition to being thankful for my wonderful friends and family, my health, the success of my business and my clients’ relationships, I am also thankful for the technology we have that allows us to meet the person of our dreams, one click at a time.

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