(Photo: Wikipedia)

When we talk about “disrupting” stuff, this is not exactly what we have in mind: According to New York Mag, the “delicate social ecology” of Fire Island, a favorite vacation spot for many New York gay men, has been tossed into upheaval by the cruising app Grindr:

As Occhipinti and others see it, Grindr is an intrusion of digital artifice into what was once an analog gay Utopia—a place free from traffic, straight people, and, to a large extent, technology, where you could meet other men with a freedom and spontaneity that were impossible almost anywhere else….“What’s the point?” he asked, before wandering off to check out the Blue Whale, “if everybody is on Grindr?”

Damn technology! Even the centuries-long tradition of cruising isn’t safe from its implacable impact.

Jessica Roy is a reporter for Betabeat and the New York Observer. Follow Jessica on Twitter or via RSS. jroy@observer.com