Reflection on Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari with Eric Klinenberg

Modern Romance breaks down all the new norms around dating and romance that exist today generally for people 30ish and under. He covers texting, sexting, online dating, ghosting, and more. He analyzes how we ask people out (email, text, face-to-face, phone) and who does the asking (man or woman?) The book is a really quick read at just over 200 pages and it flies by because it is not a dry read at all. I guess this would make it a very wet read. You could just drink it up through a straw. It’s a little too goofy at times, but if you know Aziz Ansari as a standup comedian or as Tom Haverford on Parks and Rec, then you already knew what you were in for.

Some cool stats:

·        Half of eighteen to twenty-four-year-olds have received sexts and one third of older teens have sent a sext (though I wonder what they define as a sext)

·        People who own iPhones are twice as likely to sext as Android owners

·        The most popular time to sext is Tuesday between 10:00 AM and noon (very weird)

·        In the United States, 20-40% of married heterosexual men and 25% of married hetero women will have at least one extramarital affair during their lifetime

I didn’t take a ton of notes as I read this book because it was shorter and I just flew through it on a sort of “just-for-fun” read because this history of Canada that I’m reading is getting boring. I found it interesting that they gathered data in focus groups and people would allow Aziz to read their texts. The book is filled with specific anecdotes from real people and their real text messages. It’s very relatable for someone single in their twenties and is a great book for anybody trying to understand how young people are pairing off and how it may be different than things were 20-60 years ago.

Also, I have to thank my friend Jeremy Tache for recommending this book to me. It was very good and I read it in two days.