“Modern Romance” by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg – Chivalry Never Dies

The concept of dating (or “courting”, depending how fancy you are) is one that that seems to have undergone a tremendous amount of ages as societies have been developing over the course of thousands of years. We've constantly been inventing rules and traditions, and then reshaping them to fit whichever direction society tended to go.

Thankfully, it has come to a point today where people (in most developed countries at least) have a great amount of freedom in whom they choose to go out with and what they do together.

This in turn seems to have complicated the world of dating a great deal in certain ways, mainly because we have a tendency to cause chaos when given free reign to do what we'd like to.

Thankfully, we have one of the greatest comedic voices in Aziz Ansari to help us understand that convoluted world, along with the help of renowned sociologist Eric Klinenberg; they've written a whole book about it titled Modern Romance.

So what exactly does this book cover? Well, it starts off at the beginning and shows just how much our approach to dating has changed in the past few decades alone, giving a brief explanation of how the quick technological progress in the domain of communication has increased our ability to connect, and thus the amount of options we have.

And then, Ansari and Klinenberg delve into the heart of the matter and set up a vast social science experiment, spanning the globe, including the United States, Japan and Spain. They conduct interviews, analyze behavioral findings, draw information from surveys, and basically everything you would expect from a legitimate scientific study.

As Klinenberg provides the data and the explanations that come along with it, Ansari translates it all through his sharp and witty voice, demonstrating concepts, illustrating situations and examples through the scope of comedy.

He does a fantastic job of not only making it relatable and easily understandable to the layman, but also funny and entertaining in general... as a matter of fact, this may very well be one of the most jovial scientific studies to be found out there.

Apart from making fun of all the ridiculousness our dating behaviour entails, the book also does contain some insight into why we act the way we do when searching for love, and how we can improve our approach by adopting a different perspective to the whole thing.

There is definitely some depth to be found here, but if you're not looking for that rest assured that Ansari's sense of humour will keep you distracted all the way through... he just has a gift for hilariously depicting everyday situations that frustrate or leave us stumped, especially in a social context.

All things considered, if dating in the modern age is something of an indecipherable mystery, rest assured you're not alone, and you'll definitely be able to shed some light on it with this book... and have a belly full of laughs at the same time.

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	Aziz Ishmael Ansari Personal site Aziz Ishmael Ansari is an American actor and comedian best-known for his role of Tom Haverford on the NBC comedy show Parks and Recreation. He has recently taken up to writing, penning his first book with the help of sociologist Eric Klinenberg, titled Modern Romance: An Investigation.
	Eric Klinenberg Personal site Eric Klinenberg is an American scholar of urban studies, culture and media as well as a sociologist, a field in which his contributions are highly-regarded. He has written multiple books, including Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago and Cultural Production in a Digital Age.