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We live in a world where industries and businesses are being encouraged to be more open about who they are, what they do, what their values are, rather than just expecting customers to simply buy their product without any having any background about the company.
Where once a company could rely on having a great product or service to win over customers, today there is a greater need to be open about the business’ core ethos and personality. In other words, businesses are forced to lay all their cards on the table before the customer even becomes a customer.
And this is happening across the board, with other industries also sharing more of an insight into who they are and how they work. In the retail world, brands are fighting it out to label themselves as the most sustainable, whether that be how they make their product or how they package it, so that customers really know who they are buying from.
Casino databases and other online businesses based on the same premise are also no exception: these no longer just consist of a list of online casinos or other products, but instead provide more info on how to access the games, what the reviews are saying and how to access support, in a bid to provide as many information related to the subject-matter as possible.
So, while the norm seems to be that you lay all your cards on the table before anyone commits to anything, the concept of marrying someone at first sight seems rather unusual, and exactly the complete opposite approach. Can it be possible for two people who have never met and know nothing about each other to get married at first sight and have everlasting love? Not laying their cards on the table until an actual commitment has been made and papers signed? The ever popular TV show – Married at First Sight – has been testing this theory for a number of years.
When you first hear about this show, you won’t be the first to question its authenticity, as it is hard to believe that two complete strangers would agree to get married at first sight on television. However, the show is exactly what it’s advertised to be, with two people genuinely having their first ever meeting while standing at the altar saying “I do”.
The matching isn’t random, with a team of specialists, including life coaches and scientists, carrying out an extensive analysis to ensure the two strangers are matched together based on their DNA, IQ, life ambitions and values. But can you trust science to create everlasting love? Can marriage at first sight really work?
Once married, the couples go on a honeymoon, followed by weeks of tests, family visits and commitment ceremonies, before being set free into the outside world on their own. Some have broken up during the show, others made it to the end of the show but never made it past the first year of marriage. But, while many do not make it, there have been some success stories.
Out of 59 couples that have been matched together since the first series aired in 2014, 12 are still together, which works out at about 20%. So, a fifth of all couples have continued living happily ever after after the cameras stopped rolling, with some even going on to have children together. Could this be classed as a success?
That is a hard question to answer. The figures of those who did make it may be higher than what you would expect, but with 80% not working out, could that be a sign that perhaps it is better to get to know someone first and know what you are committing to?
And the success stories, were they down to science? Or was it because two people were put together who were both serious about finding love, were in the right place in their life for marriage, and had shared values and similar aspirations for the future? Surely this is already halfway there to a solid match, and then perhaps throw in the shared experience of doing something out of the ordinary together, and you can see how the successful relationships may have had a half decent platform to dive into from.
The show has faced a lot of criticism from traditionalists, with one of the main concerns that it undermines commitment. It certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and it would be safe to say that it takes a certain type of person to want to take part in an experiment like this. But a 1 in 5 chance of the marriage working out isn’t the worst odds in the world, especially as statistics show that between 40-50% of marriages end in divorce.
It is an interesting topic of conversation, and certainly a different way of finding love. But with dating apps becoming more and more popular, and people meeting people for the first time in a whole variety of novel ways, perhaps marrying someone at first sight is a hard concept to knock.