Do Dating Apps Endorse Toxic Femininity? Tinder Founder Sells Mansion for $35,000,000
Everyone needs to understand this about reality, problems and solutions never exist in a vacuum. Solutions create problems, and sometimes problems can create solutions. In summary, nothing happens in isolation.
In the past I have held no bars when it comes to my opinion on dating apps. I really don't like them. As much as there are the occasional success stories, overall I believe they have been a pretty damaging endeavour, especially in recent years. Yet one of the co-founders has purchased and just sold a mansion worth over $35 million.
Why is this a worrying occurrence? It's a worrying occurrence because in order to be able to purchase such an expensive asset and possess such financial prowess, someone should have created something of incredible value and worth to society. That is really the only morally acceptable reason why, and even then it is a pretty tenuous one.
However, this guy hasn't done that. In fact there's a strong argument to say that he's done the opposite. There is a plethora of data out there that demonstrates how dating apps have smothered dating and relationships in a significant way. So much so that Tinder is now losing more users than its gaining, and is effectively dying a slow and painful death.
The graph above highlights the obscene advantage that females have on dating apps compared to males. It has become part of modern culture the fact that women are able to receive likes and matches on dating apps in a manner that is unbelievably easier than men can. In my opinion this is actually one of, if not the biggest difference between men and women. The discrepancy in the reproductive burden between men and women mirrors this advantage that women have in dating and sexual relationships. And despite the invention of the birth control pill and mostly reliable contraception, the differences in men and women's selectiveness when it comes to long-term and short-term relationships, particularly short-term, are still stark. Another good indication of how not everything is socially determined.
Dating apps will die sooner rather than later. They will have to revamp their outlook and approach or eventually, fingers crossed, young people will become more and more aware of the exploitative nature of them, overriding their desire for social acceptance, and will withdraw from them completely. Granted, platforms such as Hinge and Bumble are growing in popularity, nevertheless the described phenomenons still take place.
As much as this may seem a bit extreme, I see real similarities between this and the atrocities that Purdue Pharmaceuticals committed with regards to the genesis of the Opioid Crisis in the US. These are examples of capitalism failing us, and in Purdue's case, killing us.
Hopefully the next generation will not have to be put through the depressing nature of dating apps, and even social media. It is becoming increasingly understood that some people use dating apps for mere narcissistic validation. Somehow this is a socially acceptable behaviour to engage in, and it is completely facilitated by the medium of these apps. The small percentage of the population that is prone to these types of tendencies have historically been kept in check by the social world, unfortunately the virtual world is not yet adapted to impeding and precluding these people. This is causing all manner of issues, especially for the elderly and vulnerable.
These consequences don't just impact the users of dating apps, as alluded to in the first paragraph, they ripple out into all aspects of dating. People are crying out for some more tradition and meaning in their lives, and a long-term committed relationship is one avenue where that can be found.
Until next time,
OJ