Love at First Swipe : How Online Dating has Changed Our Lives

Dating apps were in trend even before the advent of the pandemic, but the isolation during the lock down period caused them to boom as they were like a rescue to a lot of people. Tinder is the most downloaded dating app in the world, hitting almost three billion swipes in a single day during March 2020 .

According to a study by Stanford University in 2017, almost 40 percent of heterosexual couples and 60 percent of same-sex couples in the US met online. Thus, dating apps are one of the most common ways through which couples now meet. Today, there are a lot of dating apps available. The most popular hook-up app, especially among the younger folks, remains Tinder, with its interesting “swiping” feature: users swipe right or left in order to “like” or “dislike” photos of other user. If both the parties swipes right on the other person, it becomes a match. Bumble is another such app, and its swiping feature comes with a catch. Whenever there’s a match, only women can text first. Some apps like Hinge have removed the swiping feature and instead, users initiate a conversation with a person of interest by liking their photo or commenting on a prompt in their profile, such as “a life goal of mine” or “the most spontaneous thing I’ve ever done.”

These apps have indeed helped people meet other people—it has expanded the reach of singles’ social networks, facilitating interactions between people who might never have crossed paths geographically. Research has shown that we are able to build relationships with each other based solely on online interactions. In fact, people have a tendency to share more intimate details online rather than in real life. Meeting your partner through a dating app might be different from the classic rom-com meet that ends up with a suspenseful airport chase or a kiss in the rain. But it’s far from being romance-free.

The search for “the one” in the digital age tends to make people anxious. If you’ve ever heard your friends narrating incidents of their bad dates, you might approach dating apps with caution. But just as online dating can produce some comically bad experiences, there are a lot of perks as well. A lot of us know people who seem so perfectly matched that it’s almost impossible to believe they met on opposite sides of a screen. But when it actually comes down to it, does online dating actually work? Is it really possible to find love at first swipe?

While you may think that it’s not a great idea or even wastage of time like all matters in love, it has its pros and cons. While online dating has some potential for pitfalls compared to meeting people in real life, the volume of possibilities is humungous which increases the chances that you’ll meet someone you’re truly compatible with. Spend time and energy getting clear about who you are and what you really want in a relationship, and think about who your ideal partner is. Be honest with the people you connect with, but most importantly, be honest with yourself.

However, there’s a downside to such apps like the relative anonymity has made the dating landscape a ruder, flakier, cruller place leading to fake accounts, ghosting and impersonating. People who are not very similar to their romantic partners end up at a greater risk for breaking up . Indeed, some daters attest to the fact that meeting on the apps means dating in a sort of context vacuum. There is no intermediary like a friend or a co-worker.

In old school dating, by contrast, the circumstances under which two people met organically could provide at least some measure of common ground between them. However, you’ll never know if you don’t try dating apps for yourself. Anything good or bad in life itself counts as experience.

Vishakha

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