Love

Technology and platforms are increasingly playing a role in shaping the future of love because of changes in the institutions that have historically shaped and defined love, from religion to government to financial structures. As people’s relationships with those structures change, so will the way these institutions influence how and when people seek life partners (or not), how they live, and how they express their feelings and identities. How will people meet potential partners? How many will they have at once, and over their lifetimes?

The What the Future: Love issue will lay out what businesses and institutions need to know about changing norms of love and how they will affect brands and services across dating apps, weddings, media, housing, financial services, insurance, food, consumer goods, gifts, jewelry, health and wellbeing, retail and more.

For more foresight content, subscribe to the What the Future newsletter for new topics each month. Be sure to register for the Feb. 14 What the Future: Love issue companion webinar as we guide you through the latest data, interviews and brand implications. For now, read on as we talk with experts about changes in technology, cultural institutions, and demographics and how they will shape how people will connect, commit, spend and split in the future.

• Dan Cox, director of the Survey Center of American Life, American Enterprise Institute — How changing institutions will define relationships
• Jess Carbino, Ph.D, sociologist and dating expert — Where the next generation of online dating is headed
• Meredith Goldstein, “Love Letters” advice columnist and podcast host, The Boston Globe — How people are rethinking happily ever after
• Luciano Rodembusch, president, North America, Pandora Jewelry — How expressing love will change ‘putting a ring on it’ 

For full results, please refer to the annotated questionnaire.