Dating apps

The dating app institutions (i.e. companies) are real points of ambivalence for me. Dating apps themselves are, for one thing, really expensive and so I’ve dropped a lot of my disposable income to this form of, almost what I consider to be, gambling. The dating app dynamic is a really interesting concept: they put you in contact with people who you would ordinarily never interact with if it weren’t for the digital interface. Most of the time, it’s for the worse and the relationship doesn’t work out. Yet, the person who I consider to be my closest friend at the moment I met on the dating app Hinge and I don’t think we would’ve been close had it not been for that serendipitous connection. Thus, dating apps do have their place in modern society.  

I feel like I’m one of those people that don’t come off super exciting through a dating app profile because of the stereotypes associated with my demographic. Thus, I have to sort of work super hard to gain connections. This does come with pros and cons. The cons are obvious: people tend to easily brush me off. However, the pros is that the connections I do forge tend to be relatively strong and based on deeper levels of interest rather than the superficial, as would someone who’s really good looking, for instance, probably experiences. I think beautiful people get a lot of attention, but experience a lot more heart break.

All and all, dating apps are like masks that people wear to project a version of themselves to the world. That’s in a sense what social media is too and I don’t think there’s a way around this fantastical representation of the average human being in the digital space. I think that’s just how computers and the invention of the screen and social media and dating apps have set the rules for contemporary digital social interactions. With that said, there’s always room for face-to-face interactions if the digital connection is not your thing.