Meeting people in real life is hard, maybe harder these days than ever before. When you meet someone in real life and want to ask them on a date, you’re taking a big risk. And we’re all hyper-aware of that risk, well, most of us. The odd thing about this is that even with all of their issues, dating apps seem to work.
Lifelong luddite Treena Orchard was a newly sober woman coming off a much-needed break from relationships, reluctantly taking the digital plunge by downloading a dating app. Instead of the fun, easy experiences advertised on swiping platforms, she discovered endless upkeep, ghosting, fleeting moments of sexual connection, and a steady flow of misogyny.
Not My Type: Automating Sexual Racism in Online Dating
In the world of online dating, race-based discrimination is not only tolerated, but encouraged as part of a pervasive belief that it is simply a neutral, personal choice about one’s romantic partner.
Addicted to love: how dating apps ‘exploit’ their users
Critics say modern dating is in crisis. They claim that dating apps, which have been downloaded hundreds of millions of times worldwide, are “exploitative”and are designed not to be deleted but to be addictive, to retain users in order to create revenue.