Love in the Time of Dating Apps: The Rise of Choicetech
Event: The Rise of Choicetech | Love in the Time of Dating Apps
When: Saturday, March 21, 2026 3-4PM
Where: Bob Ragland Library Branch, Denver Colorado
1900 35th Street, 80216, Denver, CO
Ticket required. Space is limited. Reserve your spot.
A sliding-scale contribution of $5-$35 is requested for this event. Your contribution helps cover the costs involved in creating thoughtful, accessible programming and supports the continuation of this series.
About the Event:
As uncertainty has become a defining condition of modern life, we’ve increasingly turned to technology to help us manage both information and choice. From recommendation systems to rankings to platforms designed to “simplify” decisions, these tools shape what we see, how we evaluate it, and how we move forward. Dating apps are one of the most familiar, and revealing, examples of this shift.
This session in the Love in the Time of Dating Apps series explores the rise of choicetech: tools and systems designed to structure decision-making under conditions of complexity and uncertainty by filtering, ranking, pacing, and framing information in ways that make choices feel more manageable. Choicetech has emerged as a response to the Information Age but it also actively drives it forward, reshaping how information is produced, presented, and acted upon in everyday life.
Rather than framing dating apps as “good” or “bad,” this conversation zooms out to examine how choicetech changes our relationship to both information and choice at the same time. Using dating apps as a concrete example, we’ll look at how these systems influence perception, evaluation, and timing in modern dating.
Led by Emily Pabst, founder of Remake The Rules, this session draws on information science, decision-making strategy, and human-centered technology to help participants recognize the role choicetech plays in modern dating—and what becomes possible when you can finally see the system you’re deciding inside
Who is this for?
This class is designed for people who are currently on the apps, thinking about starting or restarting, or just trying to understand why dating and daily decision making feels harder than expected. It is intentionally dating-goal, orientation, and identity agnostic, focusing instead on how decisions get shaped, not what or who you should be aiming for. Expect a nerdy and ultimately hopeful conversation along with interactive moments to reflect privately on your own experience.
This session is part of a five-part, monthly series that looks at modern dating through the lens of uncertainty, choicetech, information overload, choice inflation, and decision fatigue. Each class stands on its own, but together they offer a deeper framework for understanding and reshaping how you relate to dating apps and how they are either helping or hindering your search for connection.
A sliding-scale contribution of $5-$35 is requested for this event. Your contribution helps cover the costs involved in creating thoughtful, accessible programming and supports the continuation of this series. No one will be turned away for inability to pay.
If you’re curious, reflective, and interested in understanding how modern systems shape your dating life, this session is for you.