Online dating has become as easy as playing a game. You download the dating app, create your profile with all the necessary information: your age, your height, hobbies, and a few fun facts about yourself, if you wish to share those. Most important for online dating, naturally, are the pictures. There should be at least one photo of your face, some apps even have rigorous guidelines about that. After that, let the swiping begin!
While on the app, you can flick through the profiles of others – if you like them, you simply swipe right, and if you don’t, you say farewell by swiping left. If both users have swiped right, it’s a match, which means that they can start writing messages and get to know each other.
The most popular app is called Tinder, with 50 million users seeking love in 190 countries. There are two versions of the app: the first one only provides you with the basics. However, if you are eager to share an infinite number of hearts or if you want to heighten your success rate, the advanced membership costs €30/month.
Alternatively, Bumble, Badoo, Lovoo, or Hinge are based on the same concepts as Tinder, so you can use them for free with certain restrictions. As with Tinder, to benefit from advantages, advanced memberships range between €8 – €15 a month.
Even though dating apps are predominantly used by the so-called Generation Z, mainly young adults between 18 and 30 years old, there is no age restriction. People over 30 are more than welcome to try their luck at finding the love of their life or new acquaintances.
As a number of studies have shown, and you may have already noticed around you, it is possible to find a permanent partner through these apps. In 2023, 21% of participants in a survey indicated that they have met their partner on a dating app.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t happen as seamlessly as portrayed in the adverts. A Norwegian study asserted that you need at least 291 matches before you find the right one. Thus, it is a lengthy process that asks for perseverance. Online dating basically consists of a lot of small talk, getting to know a few people simultaneously, going on multiple dates, and accepting that rejection is a big part of the game.
Furthermore, online dating can be a strain on mental health, according to psychologists and sociologists.
On the internet, it is very easy to simply stop responding to a person’s texts or dissolve a match without any prior warning. Being rejected can often get to someone’s psyche and prompt a bottomless pit of self-doubt. Besides, the swiping motion can actually become addictive, and there are so many options that you might feel tempted to always keep looking for someone “better”. Single people go on more dates, yet they have less time to spend on each person. As a consequence, they are less emotionally invested and most singles try to have more than one option ready at all times. It has become increasingly difficult to be in a committed relationship.
A question that comes up frequently is whether new generations are especially unable to commit to a relationship. Issues of dating frustration and dating burn-out have surfaced too, and this frustration can have consequences.
Dating apps experienced a lot of popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, since people could not meet outside. Nowadays, the amount of time invested into talking to people, with no immediate result, has motivated more and more people to give up.
And even the people RTL talked to in Luxembourg were not entirely convinced of the success stories of virtual dating. What do you think? Take our quick quiz and let us know below!
