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From FaceTime and instant messaging to the Internet’s multitude of social media platforms, “interconnected” is perhaps the most appropriate term to describe our modern world. In fact, with the ability to communicate with anyone at the click of a button, there are more opportunities to connect than ever before. Considering all this, one question remains. Why are so many Americans feeling more alone than ever?
The answer may be rooted in the decline of real, genuine relationships, especially romantic ones. The number has increased by 50% since 1986.
Many experts attribute this statistic to the rise of social media and casual dating apps, reporting that nearly half of young people in the United States have used an online dating platform. Apps like Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, and OkCupid are all marketed with the promise of increasing your chances of finding love. Despite the large number of individuals using these dating sites (approximately 53 million in 2022), only 12% of these individuals reported ultimately forming committed relationships. doing.
So why? The ultimate goal of online dating apps is to act as a conduit for committed relationships, right? The online dating space has become a multi-billion dollar industry. The industry primarily profits from the addiction of its users, especially by keeping them single. There are two ways the industry can achieve this. It relies on the nature of gamification and what psychologist Barry Schwartz calls the “paradox of choice.”
The existence of the paradox of choice in online dating is perhaps best understood through the online shopping analogy. Research shows that shoppers are paradoxically less likely to be satisfied with their final decision the more potential purchase options they have. When our brains become overwhelmed with choices, we often experience selective paralysis.
User selection overload experiences have become a frequent occurrence on Tinder. With the emergence of so-called “serial swipers,” many users are seen to be strongly reluctant to commit to a single option for fear of missing out on potentially better options.
It is especially dangerous for the paradox of choice to permeate the realm of relationships. Unlike online shopping, users are choosing people, not products. The resulting world of online dating has become a breeding ground for objectification, sexual harassment, and insecurity, as choices are increasingly influenced by abundance and physical appearance rather than true compatibility.
Another factor behind the addictiveness of these dating apps is gamification. Natasha Dow Schüll, author of Addiction by Design, describes gamification as “the loose application of game elements to other aspects of life by developers to attract attention, encourage engagement, and drive revenue.” is defined as Schüll explains that these dating apps are indifferent to users’ positive outcomes, such as committed relationships and marriage.
Rather, they are driven by the ultimate goal of increasing revenue, and ensuring users stay on these dating apps is one of the best ways to do so. Therefore, these platforms are designed to be addictive, utilizing the same game-like qualities found in gambling and slot he machines to keep the audience engaged. The most concrete example of this is in the concept of “infinite scrolling”.
“Infinite scrolling” is a feature used by most social media networks and dating apps that allows users to scroll continuously between posts and profiles instead of clicking through different pages. Relying on what psychologists call “unit bias,” the ability to scroll infinitely exploits the natural human desire to complete defined units of something.
When the units become undefined (infinity in this case), the brain has an addictive reaction, prompting us to keep scrolling in hopes of reaching a nonexistent point of completion. It works like a slot machine. There is no defined point at which users receive their theoretical rewards, so they keep buying into the system in hopes of hitting the jackpot in the next period.
The ethical implications of introducing this concept into the world of romantic relationships are terrifying.As users continue to swipe endlessly through apps like Tinder and Hinge, the rewards they seek are more than just monetary. not real people living real lives with whom they are interacting.
The instant gratification provided by each “match” makes the idea of exclusivity unsettling, and many continue to rely on these apps. flat in a committed relationship. Specifically, 30% of his Tinder users are married and another 12% of him are in a relationship. Because of this, the world of online dating has become a breeding ground for cheating and irresponsible sex. Users are immersed in an endless and twisted game where matches and hookups serve as points to keep score I notice that.
All of these conditions combine to make the online dating environment less than ideal. And unfortunately these negative effects have been shown to disproportionately affect women. Women are shown to be significantly more likely than men to experience online abuse and harassment on these platforms. More than a third of those surveyed reported being sexually assaulted by someone they met on one of these apps. Reports of low self-esteem and feelings of objectification are not uncommon. The ability for users to create idealized, “filtered” versions of themselves online can foster unhealthy thinking. Users are increasingly conditioned to think that only this “filtered” version of themselves is reasonable to present to the outside world.
So are these claims that the “dating apocalypse” is upon us actually valid? The answer is complicated. The rise of social media and online dating apps has perpetuated a strong hookup culture, but the growing awareness of the harmfulness of these platforms has created an equally strong opposition movement. The growing pressure as a result of sexual harassment and lack of corporate oversight is spreading awareness about the problem and spurring further research on how to fix the flawed nature of these apps. app seems to survive. So users have a choice. In an increasingly digital world, it’s up to each of us to decide whether our love life falls into that category as well.
Tate Moyer is an opinion columnist and can be reached at moyert@umich.edu.
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