To swipe or not to swipe? That is the question.

Currently listening to: La Femme – Runway

The modern phenomenon of dating apps has stopped being a phenomenon at this point and is now so ingrained in normality that it’s like expecting that everyone has a social media profile or an email address. Yet, how are dating apps affecting our daily lives and psyche, and is the digital persona more important than your ‘offline’ persona nowadays?

I have always been divided about the concept of these apps. The immediate gratification offered by a simple swipe often leads to a lot of disappointment afterwards. Useless messages and exchanges, the occasional uninvited photos, the meetings that never come to fruition…it’s safe to say that it’s an endless cycle. We can compare it to a ‘window-shopping’ exercise for potential partners… like going on Amazon or eBay to purchase something thanks to a simple ‘Search’ button.

However, are these digital personas turning into a marker of social status? After watching the Black Mirror episode ‘Nosedive’, I couldn’t help but wonder whether dating apps are the new social credit system in the dating world; where people are ‘disposed’ of if they don’t get enough swipes or likes, and where the constant pressure to keep up a trendy digital persona leads to inner conflict. All that seeming plurality creates a tonne of expectations…and a hell lot of dating fatigue.

So what’s the moral of this story? It’s easy to judge and say ‘Delete all apps, and do it the old-fashioned way’, however, I believe that that comment is very misleading since one cannot reverse back to how things were. On the other hand, I would say that at a point, it would be useful to remind ourselves that our own self-worth is not based on any social credit system and to truly invest in our self-worth. A recent post by The Artidote states that ”Inner peace is the new success” and this is totally applicable to the inner turmoil that can be caused if the imposing digital persona and social credit pressures aren’t taken with a pinch of salt. In the end, no one can truly judge you in a few seconds by a few photos and a stupid caption…it takes so much more to discover the inner core of a person than this.