Editorial Midsummer is found in Tinder – or in the flowering house

Editorial|Editorial

Midsummer has traditionally been a celebration of fertility. The signs obtained on Midsummer night indicated what kind of harvest would be obtained. The flowers placed under the pillow provided information about the future spouse, and the bread of the year was made from the baptism collected on Midsummer night. According to Nordic tradition, the celebration of fertility also included the hostess cleaning the house naked.

Sociologists say that the history of Finnish couple formation can be told through technological upheavals. At one time, the bicycle revolutionized the relationship market. The bike allowed you to dance all the way to neighboring villages, and the number of potential partners multiplied. The proliferation of the Internet and dating applications is a similar tearing change in pairing.

HS reported last week about an American study, according to which in the United States, about 40 percent of people meet their partners online. The percentage has doubled since 1995. Before, it was customary for a partner to be found through friends, now relationships are increasingly found online.

Only dating applications have brought Finland to a dating culture, where instead of a boring home evening, you can have a glass with an unknown person. It makes it easier to find a new partner in a relationship change – even though the Population Association estimates that the internet is the most common way to find a new partner in some groups after a divorce. Dating applications can also be helpful if you are looking for a partner with special needs.

At the same time, dating applications seem to increase vulnerability and heartache. It is not known about the delights whether they are real people or how much they are lying. Sometimes they just disappear without any reason to disappear.

Psychiatrists say that the number of opportunities and options increases the strain on the mind. This is the basic problem of modern man – when there are a lot of options, we want more of everything, and it causes intransigence. People are also on the move in dating apps with different motives. One is looking for a friend, another for sex, a third for romantic love and a lifelong partner. And many don’t even know what they want. Relationships have become consumer goods.

The benefit to the app business is that the person continues to use the app and gets emotional stimuli. Social media algorithms are deliberately confused with irregularity so that rewards and punishments are not logically repeated. It increases the addiction of the service.

Historian Teemu Keskisarja wrote in Ilta-Sanomat about how a third or even half of college students believe they need treatment for mental illness. According to him, one of the root causes of the mental health crisis is “digital shadow life”. “It replaces relationships and prevents you from being free at work and in your free time. Widget widgets for all ages killed the free chat buddy of loved ones, which was historically a superior form of therapy, ”Keskisarja estimates.

Anna Rotkirch, a research professor at the Finnish Population Association, and Kristiina Tammisalo, a researcher, published in May research, which investigated the effect of screen time on family relationships. There were pros and cons to using smart devices, but in relationships, screen time brought the biggest downside. The frame time used was absent from the cohesiveness and quality of the relationship. The study also provided indications that ample screen time leads to divorce.

Addictive smart devices should be watched out. At Midsummer, it’s good to test your own addiction. You can even start by not taking your phone to the dining table.

The editorials are HS’s statements on a topical issue. The writings are prepared by HS’s editorial staff and reflect the magazine principle.