Another reason to avoid dating apps
Today while I was waiting around for something I overheard a conversation a group of girls were having. I overheard them talking about a friend of theirs getting a tattoo while so mentally incapacitated they didn't even know where they were. I didn't particularly want to listen in on their conversation but they were so obnoxiously loud that it was hard not to.
Girl1: Next time I'm just going to start liking everyone I know on Hinge
Girl2: Even if you don't want to date them?
Girl1: Yeah, it will be funny
Girl2: Yeah sounds like it will be comedy gold
Girl3: Don't you think there's a line that shouldn't be crossed with these things?
Conversations like this that show why online dating is such a waste of time for the majority of people these days. There's a number of people who use these apps not to find relationships or hookups but rather for their own narcissistic reasons. This "comedy gold" comment was particularly grating to hear, not only is this not funny it's one of the most lousy reasons to be on a dating app I've ever heard. If you want a laugh go to a comedy club or tell some jokes or something but please save us all from activating an online dating app account, if you think liking people who you don't intend to talk to is funny you really aren't funny. But the main reason this comment grated on me so much is that there was someone giving approval to someone else suggesting poor behavior on a dating app.
If you are actually looking for a relationship there are a lot of other reasons why I advise most people to avoid these dating apps, especially men, but people using these apps for their own personal validation is a huge factor. The amount of time wasted on these apps is huge. The percentage of the population who are willing to use these apps without actually planning on anything serious when it comes to dating might not be that high. But even a small percentage of people who are using the apps without any thought for the other people and are just liking a lot of people who they have no intention of dating is going to waste an enormous amount of everyone's time. Wasting other people's time like this is highly disrespectful. The reason that such a small percentage of people like this can ruin the experience for everyone else is a matter of adverse selection pressures. People who are using the apps for their own narcissistic ego boost aren't likely to find a relationship as they aren't legitimately on the apps looking for one. People who are looking for a relationship tend to find one and then they drop off the apps. What this does is leave a pool of increasingly low quality people on the apps including the trollers, scammers and narcissists. With many of these app companies optimizing for monthly active users they have incentives that clash with discouraging this behavior.