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from the post-traumatic-swipe-disorder dept.
Are 'swipe left' dating apps bad for our mental health?
Dating apps have taken the world by storm, but has the trend for swiping right or left to like or reject potential matches contributed to many people's unhappiness and low self-esteem?
Following the end of her last relationship, Kirsty Finlayson, 28, did what many people do - she turned to dating apps to find love. But the incessant swiping and the stream of small-talk conversations that soon fizzle out left her feeling dejected. "Dating apps have definitely increased my anxiety," admits Kirsty, a solicitor who lives in London. "It fuels the idea of a disposable society where people can match, date once, and not give it much effort," she says. "I find it difficult to distinguish between those who are just using it as a way of passing time on their commute or ego-boosting and those who actually are looking for something serious."
[...] Despite the huge popularity of dating apps - and the millions of success stories worldwide - many users report that some apps make them feel low and experience self doubt. [...] Such experiences echo the results of a study two years ago by the University of North Texas, which found that male Tinder users reported lower levels of satisfaction with their faces and bodies and lower levels of self worth than those not on the dating app.
Trent Petrie, professor of psychology at the University of North Texas and co-author of the research, says: "With a focus on appearance and social comparisons, individuals can become overly sensitised to how they look and appear to others and ultimately begin to believe that they fall short of what is expected of them in terms of appearance and attractiveness. "We would expect them to report higher levels of distress, such as sadness and depression, and feel more pressures to be attractive and thin."
Earlier this year a poll of 200,000 iPhone users by non-profit organisation Time Well Spent found that dating app Grindr topped a list of apps that made people feel most unhappy, with 77% of users admitting it made them feel miserable. Tinder was in ninth place.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @04:47AM (1 child)
I have come to the conclusion that dating/marriage/family stuff is yesterday's paradigm, rendered moot by today's technology and social systems where anything one can possibly need or want is just a cellphone call away.
Why would a woman want a man when she has a phone?
And why would a man want a woman if he has all the free porn he can possibly watch on the 'net? And you don't have to spend all that time wooing it, and you can get exactly what you are after, guaranteed, no rejection.
If I did not know any better, I would think Dr. Paul Ehrlich , "The Population Bomb" author , oughta be pretty damn happy.
Our technology-laden lifestyle has successfully thrown a monkey wrench in the baby machine showing women that men are no longer needed - a phone and a credit card will do anything a guy can do, and all they have to do is go to work to make money to keep the credit card charged. While also showing men that women are an extremely inefficient use of time and finances when one can get the end result much faster and more economically over the internet.
Leave the breeding to the lower class, which needs the tax deduction.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday September 10 2018, @01:24PM
It's not the end of sex, it's just a matter of converting sex from a biological necessity into a form of entertainment. It's still going to be many years before any technology can do that better than a skilled human.
Ever read Torvald's biography, Just For Fun? He's got a decent argument in there about things progressing from biological need to social need to entertainment, and I believe sex is one of the examples used to chart that progression. And I think that's exactly what we're seeing.
Now, consider making a site for other hobbies the same way people are starting to use dating websites for sex. Suppose we have an "extreme sports" matchmaking service. 90% of the people reject you outright because you wanna go skydiving and they're looking for white water rafting or mountain climbing or something. Another 9% reject you because they're far more experienced and don't wanna drag along a newbie, or they're less experienced and intimidated. Only a tiny fraction are going to be a match.
People have trouble finding a partner to go jogging with too...the difference is there's a lot more social pressure to be dating someone. But that will fade with time I think. The problem is merely the transition.