Is Online Dating Dying? I Think So — Here’s Why

Online dating has been a popular way to find dates for many years now, but ever since the birth of shadier sites and apps like Plenty of Fish and Tinder, things have gotten a little bit out of hand. What was once meant as a way to find real love has now twisted into a playing field of hookups, little to no commitment and bad manners and it’s leaving a lot of single people out there frustrated AF. In fact, I truly feel like online dating is on its way out — here’s why:

  1. Its reputation pretty much sucks. For those who are actually looking to find love, the horror stories have never been more frequent. The cautionary tale used to be that “you could meet a serial killer on there,” but the more accurate truth is that you meet a ton of serial daters who aren’t looking for anything even remotely close to monogamy.
  2. It’s becoming repetitive. Swipe left, left, right. It’s become way too routine for people to cozy up on their couches after a hard day of work in their comfiest sweatpants and scroll through a sea of strangers’ faces, deciding which ones look interesting enough to date. People are so numb to this routine that selections are made almost without thought. Half of the time anyone makes a right swipe, it’s on someone they second guess as soon as they’re matched. WTF? There’s so much laziness.
  3. Seeing the same single people over and over again is depressing. Those who have been single for a long time start to notice the same faces over and over again, and then it sinks in that they, too, are also one of those familiar and frequent faces in someone else’s eyes. It’s been four years and Sally still hasn’t found love on OKCupid. Isn’t it time for Sally to try other avenues? I think so!
  4. No one takes it seriously anymore — it’s all for ego. Because most people are scrolling, swiping and clicking without much thought, it’s become more of a game to boost the ego than a gateway to find love. Think about it. How many times have you matched with someone versus actually connected with them in a real conversation? Online dating has become as habitual as blindly liking funny memes on Instagram. Not a lot of thought goes into it.
  5. Most people don’t even respond. People spend so much time swiping, scrolling and collecting those matches that when the time finally rolls around to start chatting, 90 percent of people don’t even respond. Perhaps it’s the exhaustion of weeding out losers or perhaps its just the fact that the majority of people online are only looking to please themselves with as little effort as possible. Either way, it’s a waste of time.
  6. There are too many fake accounts and scams everywhere. From catfishing to vile people who pretend to be the perfect unicorn catch just to take what they want and run, we all know of someone who’s been victim to the more devious side of online dating. Fake profiles, bots and impostors are starting to leave very little room for the system to be trusted. It’s actually quite sad that something meant to help people obtain something as pure as love has been exploited to this degree.
  7. There’s a lot more rejection than success and it’s draining over time. If you’ve ever tried online dating and have had perfectly good luck right off the bat, you either have a horseshoe stuck up your butt, or you’re lying. Sure, there are some rare modern fairytales out there about successes, but those are extremely rare cases or an urban relationship myth made up to comfort the ones who are still waiting for their online love miracle.
  8. There are better and more personable ways to meet people. The older we get, and the more experiences we have with online dating, the more we realize that stepping outside our comfort zones and back into the real world is worth it. Before online dating, people met in a more natural and organic way and actually had conversations leading to more with strangers in real life. More and more people are taking their chances offline than settling for the online struggles and it means that more and more people who are actually looking for love aren’t online at all.
  9. People are sick of the BS of online dating. No one wants to be ghosted, led on or used for a hookup when they’re looking for more anymore and even though plenty of people have been played for a fool through online dating before, a lot of people are learning their lessons and opting to delete and uninstall instead. Unless a miracle happens sometime very soon, online dating is steadily turning into the bottom of the barrel dating resource rather than the best way to find love.
  10. It’s the same old stuff, different day. Whether it’s Tinder or not, most of the online dating platforms, despite their shiny and hopeful advertisements, are deteriorating in the quality connections being made. It doesn’t mean it won’t ever work or that there isn’t at least a small glimmer of hope there, but it’s only a glimmer these days. Online dating has seen its prime and though it’s been very useful for many people, it’s dying out and most people are over the nonsense that comes with it.
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