In the opening pages of Heartland, author Jennifer Pinkerton admits to feeling a little superior because she’s never used online dating. As a Gen Xer, she’s a few years older than me, and I’ve never not dated online. In her book, Pinkerton has set out to investigate “which avenue – high-tech or low-tech – results in better sex and relationships, and whether that’s even the right question to ask”. Over a six-year period, she interviewed a range of subjects across Australia, from academics to active daters, to approach something of an answer.
There’s a lot of ground to cover, and Heartland attempts to tackle it all: dating apps, alcohol reliance, hookup culture, the prevalence of “chill”, travel, porn, kink, non-monogamy, climate change, Covid-19. Many of these topics could make for a book-length investigation on their own; an overview, such as Pinkerton provides, raises interesting questions, but can only really skim the surface in a way that, in this case, rarely results in satisfying answers.
