Dating apps are a merry-go-round of possibility and overwhelm. And most of us are nauseated from the spinning. Whether you’re looking for long-term love or a casual hookup, connecting with a cutie isn’t as easy as it’s marketed to be. More often than not, these platforms instead feel like a pill we need to swallow if we’re seeking romance in the modern jungle of singleness.
So we download. We give it a go, burn out, delete, redownload a few months later, and the cycle continues.
I’ve done my time in the trenches with the usual suspects of Hinge, Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel, and a slew of others with nothing more to show for it than a few short-term flings, a tally of subpar first dates, and calluses on my thumbs from endless messaging.