Editor’s note: Spirited conversation is always echoing through the NAM newsroom. One recent discussion topic—dating in the Bay Area—was spurred by New York Magazine’s analysis of their own sex diaries series, which sought to draw general conclusions about urban sexuality in New York using the diaries as a source text.

NYmag’s diarists revealed, according to the analysis, that New Yorkers are overwhelmed by choice, sexual and otherwise, that technology plays a large, sometimes intrusive role in how they mate and date, and that revelations of vulnerability or neediness are strictly taboo.

What, then, we couldn’t help but wonder, is particular to the Bay Area dating scene? Some quick hits from our informal examination: we don’t have all-night public transportation, so the decision to stay over or bolt is made earlier. The social scene is confined to the Mission and Oakland. Gay men get tons of play, but straight women have a harder time meeting people. And comparably to New York, technology is the 3rd partner in every relationship, casual or serious—Facebook, texting, iPhone apps, Gchatting, Yelp….the litany continues.

So here’s a vlog—the first of the EthnoVlogs—in which we begin to examine this complicated and totally subjective issue. EthnoBloggers Erricka X, Rupa Dev, and myself start to talk it out, to be followed by more in-depth coverage of Bay Area dating, or, as we like to call it, Bayting.
—Laura Goode