The Modern Dating Game Using Apps; Couple Uses Wedding Budget for Incredible Things; Obama, Merkel Meet on Ukraine
BALDWIN: OK. Here's the deal. If you've not been on the market, the dating market in a while, let me just tell you, it has changed. The online and offline worlds, they're emerging in real time. "CNN Money's" Laurie Segall took a look at the search for modern love in the new series, "Love Incorporated." And today, she hits the town to find out how this new app tracks your location and shows you eligible prospects in your path.</s>LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's really no better way to talk about how things have changed and like the online dating scene than going offline to a bar in New York City on a Friday night. (on camera): Do you use apps to date?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I use Tinder.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tinder. I've been on Qpid for a few years.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been on Qpid for a few years.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been on it.</s>SEGALL: I think the bar right now is littered full of people on online dates. (voice-over): The modern dating game, where you're a click or a tap away from love, or something like it. Apps that let you swipe through your options. People are pixels, where the formula for love is coded into your Smartphone, filtered by location, age, gender. What are you into? What's your religion? True love may never change, but the way we find it has evolved. And here's the thing about love now. Mobile has changed everything.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no. No.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are not looking to meet someone because that's what they're going for.</s>SEGALL: Remember when you used to ask a friend to set you up? Hinge is an app that browses your Facebook friends and connects you with a match. Older plays like, OK Qpid and match.com, you used to check those from a computer. They're now on your phone. And Tinder, which uses geo-location to link up nearby people who are both interested. Swipe right if you're interested, swipe left if your not. If you both swipe right, it's a match. There are more options than ever. Sean Raths founded Tinder. He's managed to gamify finding a date. (on camera): We used to have the world where there was online and then there was offline. You know, something like this kind of provides like a really interesting median that you guys are very much capitalizing on.</s>SEAN RATHS, FOUNDER, TINDER: Online and offline, the distinction and behind a computer, which is usually at a fixed location, but with our phone, it's with us everywhere we go.</s>SEGALL: Part of your algorithm that makes Tinder successful is this idea of taking out the rejection factor.</s>RATHS: There's so much we can do with Tinder and the information that we pick up from you, and, you know, we can make some really good guesses on to who we think that you might be interested in.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you get a kissy face.</s>SEGALL: Oh, my --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think definitely for the worse.</s>SEGALL: Why?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't feel like meeting anybody in a bar, because you feel like you have like 50 matches on your phone, and lots of people meeting people when you go out.</s>BALDWIN: OK. We'll have much more from Laurie Segall throughout the week on "Love Incorporated." But my next guest -- I'm so excited to introduce you to both of them. They were well beyond dating, all set to walk down the aisle, when they made this decision that left their relatives, quote, "shocked and frozen." Instead of having the big party and the white dress and tuxedos and the photographers and the tiered cake and the yada, yada, this couple has been spending their wedding budget on this incredible cross-country trip, performing one act of kindness in each of the 50 states. Joining me now, I have Mark and Ismini Svensson sitting with me here in New York. Congratulations, belatedly, on the whole getting hitched things, which is the reason we're all sitting here and talking. I have to say, I saw this piece on CNN.com over the weekend, and I was like, we've got to get them onset. Because, so you popped the question. You're a civil engineer. You meet at Georgetown University. You pop the question. At what point do you decide not to have the big poufy wedding and instead do what you did?</s>ISMINI SVENSSON, SPENDING WEDDING BUDGET ON CHARITY PROJECTS: Mark?</s>MARK SVENSSON, SPENDING WEDDING BUDGET ON CHARITY PROJECTS: It's one of those decisions where it just kind of comes naturally. You're in the planning stages, you're talking about the typical stuff and you go through, OK, where are we going to have it, who are we going to invite? And at some point, you're constantly reminded that there's a big hole in the process. Someone important is missing.</s>BALDWIN: Your father?</s>ISMINI SVENSSON: Yeah. My father was a civil engineer and an economist. He was a very kind and compassionate man. He unfortunately passed away while at a charity event he had organized. He gave a last speech on love and kindness and the importance of giving back to the less fortunate. And then, in front of a packed audience, he passed away from a heart attack.</s>BALDWIN: Oh, my goodness.</s>ISMINI SVENSSON: It was a tragic event, yeah, unfortunately. And then, in order to honor his memory, Mark and I came up with this idea, instead of having a big wedding reception and a honeymoon, to travel to all 50 states in the U.S. and perform one act of kindness in every state.</s>BALDWIN: Wow. So, you take this money that was budgeted for the big wedding, and I know some family members, they wanted the big party, right? And you had to tell them, no, we would like to travel to every single state and do something. Give me examples of what you've done in different states?</s>MARK SVENSSON: For instance, in Los Angeles, and everything -- every act of kindness that we've performed is the result of suggestions we've received online. When we first started traveling, very quickly, we realized that, you know, people, once we started posting on Facebook and Twitter, that people were sending us suggestions, saying, OK, you know, when you come to my state or my area, this is an idea of something that you can do.</s>BALDWIN: They got involved.</s>MARK SVENSSON: Very fast people were getting involved. Some acts of kindness include in Los Angeles, we helped furnish a home for two women who were formerly homeless. In Texas, we helped elderly individuals with grocery shopping. In Florida, we did -- we partnered with the Humane Society to raise funds for them. And what else?</s>ISMINI SVENSSON: Every state, every state was different. So we visit patients suffering from cancer, children in hospitals, disabled young athletes, anything you can imagine. People started sending us suggestions for social media and we were following their leads.</s>MARK SVENSSON: And thinking about it now, the list goes on and on. And one of the unique things is we got to really tackle different issues that we otherwise probably wouldn't have by taking these suggestions from individuals.</s>BALDWIN: 14 states to go. Somehow, you were balancing this between having a 21-month-old.</s>ISMINI SVENSSON: Yes. A little girl.</s>BALDWIN: Taking her with you.</s>ISMINI SVENSSON: With us.</s>BALDWIN: Take her early on, I imagine as your father taught you early on, how to make the world a better place.</s>ISMINI SVENSSON: It's true. It's important for us to do this as a family. And, you know, motherhood for me is like the biggest blessing in life. And I think we're going to cherish these memories forever. We spent time with our baby and we meet all these wonderful people across the country. It's a blessing.</s>BALDWIN: We will continue following your blessings and your journey. "Stay United." You see their T-shirts. If you want to get more information or if you want more on their story, go to CNN.com/impact. Ismini and Mark, thank you both very much.</s>MARK SVENSSON: Thank you very much.</s>BALDWIN: I really appreciate it.</s>ISMINI SVENSSON: Thank you, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: If I ever get married, I will have you in mind, doing good things instead of having a big, poufy party.</s>ISMINI SVENSSON: Thank you, Brooke. Thank you.</s>MARK SVENSSON: Thank you very much.</s>BALDWIN: All right, let's continue on here. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The United States right now is considering getting even more deeply involved in the most violent conflict Europe has seen in years.</s>BALDWIN: This massive explosion wiped out a weapons plant. This is outside of Donetsk. This is the area where fighting continues to worsen each and every day, in eastern Ukraine. This is the part of the country now under control of the pro-Russian separatists. But across the country, across Ukraine, more than 5,000 people are dead, and almost one million displaced. And that number, by the way, is expected to continue to rise. President Barack Obama now facing tough questions, should the United States give defensive, yet deadly arms to Ukrainian soldiers. Originally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, unequivocally, no, worried that Russian President Vladimir Putin might become more aggressive, might retaliate with even more force. But today, we saw this news conference with President Obama and Chancellor Merkel, standing side by side, speaking from the White House, and heard a bit of a softened message. Here they were.</s>ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translation): The French president and I have decided to make one further attempt to make progress through diplomatic means.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In the face of this aggression and these bad decisions, you know, we can't simply try to talk them out of it.