Grazia Magazine is celebrating its 10-year anniversary with an exhibition and a series of talks at the Getty gallery in central London. The free #Grazia10 exhibition runs from 23rd February – 14th March and is open to the public Monday -Friday (10am-5.30pm), Saturday (12-5.30pm).
One of the talks addressed the question ‘What is love anyway’ and Maclynn Consultancy did not want to miss out.
We were curious to hear the thoughts on the matter of David Nicholls, best selling author of ‘One Day’; Bryony Gordon, columnist and writer of ‘The wrong knickers’; Rosette Pambakian, VP of Corporate Communications at Tinder and Robyn Exton, founder of ‘Her’, a dating app for women only.
The panel was brilliantly orchestrated by writer Katryn Knight who was throwing provocative questions such as ‘is finding the one an obsolete notion these days’ or ‘do we have more partners during a life time as we live longer’?
The discussion quickly diverted to the ‘wonders’ of online dating, the easiness of meeting people through the app world of ‘tinder’ ‘grindr’ and ‘her’. Rosette Pambakian assured us that tinder is no more superficial than real life: she said that we live in a visual world where simply by looking at a photo, that person speaks to us (or not) and makes us swipe left (we pass), right (we like).
According to Robyn Exton, dating app gives women more power to try something new without necessarily having to label their sexuality. In her views, our generation has grown up studying Romeo and Juliet, watching soap operas and romantic movies where the ultimate goal is to share your life with one person only, but that might change in the future as new generations are continuously exposed to multiple channels and love.
Bryony Gordon, had the audience in stiches: for her own personal experience, not having social media while in her teens was a positive thing, she said that she would have used them for hook ups rather than falling in love (she actually used the s. word but probably not ethical to repeat it here).
Possibly a more romantic view was given by David Nicholls, for whom dating was never a fun thing to do. Rather, meeting someone with the idea of settling down, took the pressure off and led him to start a family.
According to the majority of the panel, women have been empowered by social networks, they can now make the first move without having to wait for the man to lead (but surely we could do that before, all was needed was to smile and make the gentleman believe he was choosing you, but really, it was the other way round), and apparently believing in ‘one’ great love is sillier than believing in father Christmas.
If this is the case, why are people complaining about loneliness, why the success of dating websites, dating apps, matchmakers etc, why bother in the first place if you think love won’t last, is it all for pleasure?
By Alex Vitillo
Alex Vitillo is and International Matchmaker at Maclynn and editor of London-based Blog ‘AlexInDisguise’. With an MSc in Banking and International Finance, and having lived in faraway countries, Alex has been exposed to different cultures and trends which gives her an optimal insight into people’s needs and quests for love. Positive and friendly, Alex will show you that what you are looking for is often where you never considered looking before.
