by Danielle Wright
Is there a hidden cost to using dating apps?
The time you spend swiping, getting ready for a date, getting ghosted, and, of course, for men, the date itself, can surely add up and wreak havoc on your mental health. But why have dating apps grown so much in popularity over the last 28 years? Online dating began with websites like Match.com, which launched in 1995. The website allowed users to create profiles and connect with potential partners through personal ads.
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These platforms were inspired by traditional matchmaking services and personal ads in newspapers but brought the process online for a broader audience. In the early ’90s, it wasn’t uncommon for singles to take out newspaper ads looking for love—some even went as far as paying for color ads instead of having their images grayscaled. Today, She’s SINGLE Magazine has also run a number of ads for singles, mainly men who have spent upwards of $5,000 for a single space.
However, this has since dialed down as there has been so much discourse online between heterosexual men and women regarding love and relationships, not to mention hookup culture becoming more common. The idea of using an app to find love was once frowned upon, with many users keeping their involvement hidden for fear of being embarrassed or called desperate. However, it didn’t stop a lot of people from joining these websites and finding themselves in successful relationships and marriages.
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The testimonials grew, and so did their user base. Then came the rise of mobile technology. The proliferation of smartphones and mobile apps opened new possibilities for online dating, with apps offering more convenience than desktop websites, enabling users to connect anytime and anywhere. One of the earliest mobile dating services was Grindr, launched in 2009. It caters to the LGBTQ+ community and introduced location-based matching, which became a hallmark feature of modern dating apps.
In 2012, Tinder revolutionized the dating app space with its “swipe right” feature, making the process more interactive and game-like. Their success inspired a wave of competitors and niche apps catering to specific demographics, interests, and dating pools (e.g., Bumble, Hinge, OkCupid). Younger generations embraced this shift to online dating and used it as a way to form romantic connections. This was not a problem until more recently.
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