Technologies are meant to enable us to contact more people, more often, and in this way ''network'' with others. Applied to dating, this would appear to be a good thing, as people would thereby benefit from having additional choice. However, the flip side of the coin is that because of the increased choice we get a case of too much information, too many choices, too many potential (and potentially unsatisfying) mates. We find in a qualitative study of online daters that filtering through the many options, partners and choices offered by online dating sites is a prime concern in online dating. Our aim in this paper is to characterize these filtering techniques, and also to discuss their potential social impact. We find that filtering begins at the initial screening process as daters try to ''catch out'' incongruous behaviour before investing too much energy in someone unsuitable. Participants quickly become increasingly technologically literate of the code-based features of the site in their quest for greater filtering efficiency. They also come to rely on the cultivation of their own filtering ''instinct''. In the end, however, the prevalence and ongoing practice of filtering creates what can only be termed a shopping culture of dating, which often serves to sap the dating energies of participants.

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The response by Australian universities to rapid technological change and industry dissatisfaction with graduate competencies has been to identify transferable skills that support lifelong learning. Creativity is a core competency in higher education policy and curriculum frameworks, but it is rarely made explicit at the level of learning outcomes, activities and assessment. This article argues that creative competency is central to the needs of Communication Studies graduates. We demonstrate why we need to shift creative thinking from the margins to the core of learning outcomes, activities and assessment. We explain the significance of an environment that is connectivist, that raises students' awareness about creative processes, encourages them to focus on explicit learning goals, find strategies to tolerate uncertainty, take intellectual risks and to learn through experimental play. Finally, we argue that such an environment cultivates creative competency by fostering intellectual risk-taking, a tolerance for uncertainty and an agility to move between knowledge systems and to make connections between existing ideas and skills. Such an environment will enable students to develop the intellectual independence as well as the range and depth of skills required of Communications graduates in the twenty-first century.