Arranged marriages via reality television

An interesting blog post caught my eye over at the Single Shot Seattle blog. Apparently there are reality shows in the works where women are volunteering to be married to men they have never met (and, of course, vice versa as the men have never met them either).

Reality television has brought society many things and now is dipping its toes into a tradition that was widely practiced in humanity's past and is still practiced by many cultures today. However, the cultural idea in America stands firmly behind "marrying for love" or getting the know the person first and then marrying them.

"Arranged relationships" are becoming even more common with the onslaught of online dating. Yumbunny, for instance, introduces people who may have never met, using other humans to choose the best matches for the person. While, obviously, there is a lot more freedom in modern times, the concept of having friends and family aid in finding you a good match is almost as old as human reckoning.

The problem with some online dating sites is that it is all cold and mechanical. You fill out a survey, which doesn't have you go into in-depth answers, and it spits out "matches" based on how many people answered similarly. The problem with this is that what you consider to be "I like children" may not what the other person had in mind. Then you're left wasting your time with someone you think is perfect but who really isn't anywhere close.

It is curious how these marriages will be arranged. If the television producers are going for the outcome with the highest probability for disaster and unpredictability, they will probably use those same mechanical methods. Perhaps they will use people who will try to come up with similar results of wild unpredictability. If they do use friends and family, perhaps there will be a good outcome and it will show that using people to make matches is the preferred way.