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Computer dating in the 1970s: dateline and the making of the modern British single

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posted on 2023-06-21, 06:02 authored by Zoe Strimpel
The British matchmaking industry expanded sharply after 1970. This article focuses on the formative years of its most successful representative, the computer dating agency Dateline. Through attention to Dateline’s marketing in the late 1970s, I explore the ways in which new vocabularies of ‘scientific’ expertise were used to forge a ‘modern’ romantic sensibility. After setting Dateline’s success in the context social–sexual change, I explore its two main claims to authority—the computer and the empirical insights of psychology—suggesting that the invitation to embrace but also to control fate foreshadowed the pressures facing singles into the twenty-first century.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Contemporary British History

ISSN

1361-9462

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

3

Volume

31

Page range

319-342

Department affiliated with

  • History Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-03-02

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-08-24

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-03-02

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