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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: 5, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday September 08 2018, @01:05PM (1 child)
Dating is bad for mental health period. As near as I can tell, it generally takes at least half a year after meeting the person for the brain to kick the majority of the hormones that've been telling you "it is the most important thing ever in the history of the universe that I be with this person" out so you can go back to thinking somewhat rationally. That's entirely discounting teenagers who weren't thinking anything like rationally to begin with, mind you.
People who think that hormone flood is love engender extreme pity in me. It's not even close. That hormone flood causes emotions that are all about your desire; it's entirely selfish infatuation. Love is the exact opposite; it's about what its object desires, what's best for them, and what will make them happy.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 09 2018, @02:22AM
"People who think that hormone flood is love engender extreme pity in me. It's not even close. That hormone flood causes emotions that are all about your desire; it's entirely selfish infatuation. Love is the exact opposite; it's about what its object desires, what's best for them, and what will make them happy."
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Nice post.
A lot of misery could be avoided if people would read what you wrote and take it seriously.