mobile dating

anne galloway comments on justin hall's article about dating in a mobile society (using mobile in the as many sematic senses as possible). hall asks:

Have our chances of "hooking up" been augmented by mobile devices? . . . Are mobile phones likely to contribute to any long-term changes in the way humans practice courtship and the pleasure of partnering? As a flood of dating and matchmaking sites jostle to introduce us to more people, faster, will that lead to a proliferation of promiscuity?

as you can imagine, hall ends up asking more questions than he answers, but the article is interesting nonetheless. the best part of the article is when nalini kotamraju, one of the interviewees, says:

"Casual hook-ups are one of the things that sociologists have done the poorest job with. We just don't know enough about casual sex."

snickering ensues. (btw, her quotes page has delillo and 'six degrees of separation'. that's fucking hot.)

ultimately though, i'm somewhat wary of all this talk of toothing and shit. does anybody actually do this? maybe i'm just behind the times....perhaps if i upgraded my cold-war era cellular phone, i would be exposed to the sexual bounty that is sms whoredom (a.k.a. herpes). but really, even if it does occur -- and occur frequently at that -- does this change anything? it might amplify an existing behavior, but i don't believe the amplification corresponds to a shift in social mores.