You may have heard that Parks and Recreation star Aziz Ansari is writing a book on modern romance -- but did you know that you can help write it? For the last few weeks, the comedian has been treating his fans as focus groups, holding a series of shows polling audiences about various issues related to the search for love in our social media-savvy age. It only makes sense, then, that he's now taken that search online.
Recently, Ansari set up the "Modern Romantics" subreddit on Reddit: Within this subreddit (open to all users), he posts questions that will provide fodder for his forthcoming love and relationships book, Modern Romance. The aim of r/modernromantics, he explains, is "for fun discussions. Please do not mistake anything you read here as professional advice. Any and all stories posted here may be used in my book on modern romance." Ansari's co-writer, sociologist and Going Solo author Eric Klinenberg, will also weigh in on the subreddit.
As Famously points out, r/modernromantics acts as a reverse AMA: Instead of answering Redditors' queries, Ansari is asking the questions. (There used to be a joke thread posted by a different user, titled something like "Would you leave your significant other for Aziz?", but it's since been removed.) So far, Redditors are engaging in the kind of open-minded discussion I see on other dating subs (I frequent r/okcupid), but with far more optimism. Here are a couple of recent thread titles and some standout answers:
passthe_mike: Before you needed to actually see another person face to face to flirt or actively call them. Now you can privately/subtly text, instant message, etc.
Before, calling a new person to talk on the phone for hours may have seemed suspicious. Now, you can text a new person all the time and it's much more commonplace (or at least less noticeable)
azizansariAMA: That's what Eric and I have been talking about. The barriers to flirting are gone. You used to have a make a phone call -- a BOLD move. Now, you can send a simple Facebook message that says "Wsup?" and you are engaging with someone in a way that could lead to something flirtatious very quickly.
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