Efficiency vs Experience?

I just finished listening to Adam Grant’s interview with Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO of Bumble. One of the premises of certain apps, as they discussed, is to make our interactions more “efficient.” In other words, to spend less time in the process of meeting and connecting with people.

That raises a deeper question: why are we treating human experience as something to streamline? Efficiency in this context seems to mean removing the time spent living those experiences that generate meaning.

I understand that bad experiences happen, and these platforms aim to diminish them, but wouldn’t therapy, or other forms of self-reflection, as a foundation and not an afterthought help with that? Therapy as a preventative by first exploring who you are and your worth, before connecting with others romantically. After all, you can still have bad experiences mediated by technology.

They closed by talking about the importance of knowing yourself before entering the dating market—and doing that self-discovery through technology. Why are they disregarding that we have therapy for that, or that we learn that through connection with the other? If efficiency cuts down the trial, error, and reflection that lead to wisdom, we risk removing the learning component that helps us grow. And the growth we would have would be much more shallow and less rewarding.

These are initial thoughts, and I may revisit that or leave it as that. It will percolate in my brain anyway. Someday I may revisit it.