Success

The astounding success of the computer as a matchmaker in America must go beyond the novelty. When the enthusiasm is so strong, what lies behind it becomes a serious question.

One answer lies in American dating habits. The American emphasis on dating places great pressure on those who find themselves without a partner when the weekend rolls around. And the unhappy fact is, that many of the varsities in the United States which are not co-ed are located in pastoral corners— perfect for cloistered study but fatal to keeping any kind of normal heterosexual society.

The upshot is that students in these retreats adopt a weekend mentality, and they are prepared to go to any length—often travelling hundreds of miles—to find some kind of company with the opposite sex.

In this world, the problem of meeting others becomes a real one. One solution has been the "mixer"—a kind of informal ball organised, for example, by a girls' varsity, to which boys from varsities near and far are invited. The mixer, however, has built-in limitations. The shy boy, and the girl who no matter what her many other qualities, may not be a dazzling blonde, will come out of mixer after mixer with no more than an added sense of failure.