It’s the 21st century and our whole lives have moved online making life much more fast-paced, convenient, independent and self-managed. Sounds amazing but has this move actually corrupted our ideas about love, romance, as well as destroyed the whole dating experience? YES.
Apps that base our dating choices on simply looking at a person and swiping left or right turn dating into a more superficial and objective experience. I doubt meeting someone online can ever replicate the butterflies you get when a guy just comes up to you and introduces himself. Nor can it replicate the instant click you have with someone when with you first start talking and there’s chemistry – regardless of looks. Apps and online dating don’t really encourage meaningful relationships and connections, especially with young people but rather, they aid the growing hook-up culture.
Now there’s nothing wrong with having casual sex, good for you and all that but, these sites pretend to be something they’re not. Many of their users are looking for sex, not love, and there shouldn’t be any pretence about that. Otherwise, looks are pushed forward into being the most important component of your significant other, and looking at many happy couples around us that simply isn’t true. Swiping right doesn’t mean you both like dogs, or have similar hopes and ambitions for the future; it means you think that their small selection of photos are hot.
In 2014 The Huffington Post published the shocking statistic that the average Tinder user spends 77 minutes on the app a day! All this time improving your online dating profile and swiping on profiles that don’t tell you anything about the person behind the awkward mirror selfie, is detracting from time that could be spent actually out in the world doing things and meeting people.
Statisticbrain.com has a number of statistics about online dating, one of which is that 10% of sex offenders use online dating to meet people; proving you can never know who you’re actually talking to. People lie and bend the truth, and that is so much easier to do in person – you could be swiping right on a convicted sex offender.
A 2016 survey from the site also revealed that 49% of people using online services believe physical characteristics are the most important factor when dating. Literally half the people on these sites care more about your eyebrows being on fleek and your contoured cheekbones than any facet of your personality. Attitudes like that don’t lead to love, they lead to sex. Hook up culture is no bad thing if that’s what you want, but don’t make the mistake of linking it to long term romantic happiness.
Your prince charming isn’t waiting for you online, so if good old fashioned love is what you really want, don’t swipe right.
Edited by Susan Akyeampong
Sources:
http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1431471/tinder-mobile-dating-app.jpg
https://media.giphy.com/media/EU1obAC38GuWI/giphy.gif