‘Manipulation’ of love: Why dating apps have become so addictive | Community

Andrea Gill “pulled” Tinder. So she said as if the dating app was a video game. She is 36 years old from Madrid, she is browsing through profiles at a frantic pace, moving her fingers with the agility of a pianist: left, right, left, right. So there is nothing left. Then a message appears declaring, “There are no more singles in your area.” game over. The expression is appropriate not only because of its versatility, but also because dating apps are becoming more and more like video games.

A study conducted by Stanford University in the United States found that 39% of heterosexual couples and 60% of same-sex couples meet through dating apps. One in five couples who got married in Spain in 2019 met online, according to the wedding platform, Bodas.net. On the plus side, this means that it is now easier to meet someone without having to be introduced by friends or going to a nightclub. Delivery is faster and accessible to anyone. But there are also side effects. One of them is the dating game, which is a way to close the search for a partner in the game dynamics to keep the user on the platform.

The problem lies in the implementation mechanisms themselves. To connect with a partner and be able to talk to them, Tinder asks the user to pass the profiles of candidates to one side or the other, accepting or rejecting them, in an almost endless pool of suitors. According to various studies, Tinder has 57 million users in 190 countries, who together pass 1.5 billion profiles per day. Pictures are sifted in the same way as chrome cards are passed in the school yard. This is yes, this is no. That’s why many users call the constant search for matches “collect chrome”.

Gill, who has used nearly all of them in the past seven years, says, “I’m not happy with these apps, but I think there have been times when I’ve felt connected. It creates an addiction that makes you search — instead of engaging in a conversation with people, you keep scrolling through profiles. It’s so addictive. Just something I do mechanically, when I’m on the subway, watching TV or in my spare time.”

generation is not uncommon. One in six people admits feeling addicted to matchmaking processAccording to a 2017 report from Match, the parent company of dating apps Tinder, OKCupid, Pairs and Hinge. But the addictive factor does not affect everyone equally. Millennials are 125% more likely than previous generations to become drug addicts than men, and 97% more likely than women. The concern is that this effect is not random. Rather, it is intended and has been carefully designed to achieve this result.

The so-called infinite scroll is a mechanism similar to that used by social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, in this case infinite scroll, to keep the user interacting with endless posts. “This system has been found to stimulate the release of dopamine, which creates a certain degree of addiction,” says California psychologist Alina Liu. “What happens in our brains on these apps is very similar to what happens with slot machines or slot machines.”

It’s a variable reinforcement program in which reward hovers on the horizon. “The hope of getting that reward, in this case a match, motivates us to keep hitting,” Liu adds. The problem is that with dating apps, the reward is not to see an interesting post, or even three red cherries and a pile of change. It’s a physical fulfillment, a potential date, and who knows, maybe the love of your life. Pressing these emotional buttons can earn you a lot of money for apps. Tinder told EL PAÍS that free users can only accept 20 candidates per day and that its business model is not based on retaining users, but on the user choosing a paid account.

Anyway, it’s a working model. In the first quarter of 2022, Match Group announced a turnover of $3 billion. Tinder has 163 million premium users, making it Highest Paying Lifestyle App worldwide, according to the company’s own data.

“I put these dating apps through a capitalist filter and turned it into an addictive game,” says Liu. “The problem is with their business model: They generate revenue through subscriptions and ads, so their revenue is tied to users spending the day scrolling left and right on their platforms.” That’s why they are constantly looking for new features to keep the user on the app. Recently, Tinder has added fun features like Swipe Night, an interactive mechanism that asks the user to make ethical decisions — saving the girl, risking your life or running away from danger — that can affect who they come in contact with in the future. Gamification is becoming more visible and justified by the company as a way to get a better understanding of Generation Z’s preferences. “They tempt you all the time, they tell you to keep going, keep going,” Gill explains.

But while apps can use the features to try to keep the user connected, the user has the last word. The problem is not just with the algorithm or the design of the application, but with the user’s personality or environment. “For me, it’s clear that the emotional discomfort of a person who develops an addiction is more important,” says psychologist Paloma Salamanca Iniesta. “We are always surrounded by addictive substances and experiences – tobacco, coffee, gambling – but we usually don’t indulge in any of them unless we experience a moment of certain psychological vulnerability.”

According to a report by dating app Badoo based on data from its 370 million users, millennials will spend, on average, 90 minutes a day on it. These time frames can go up if a person has gone through a rough patch or developed some degree of dependency.

Apps don’t always take advantage of vulnerabilities. Many are developing digital wellness scales. Bumble periodically releases messages to its users to reduce the negative impact dating apps can have on their self-esteem. “Our app has a number of features that put mental health and self-care at the forefront, such as the Snooze feature, which gives you the opportunity to pause your activity and come back when you’re ready,” said Naomi Wollland, Bumble’s Vice President for Europe. Thursday goes one step further. This app is only active one day per week and is based on creating events in bars and promoting off-platform encounters.

However, the general trend is to maximize the user’s time on the app and get them to sign up for paid models to increase profits. The search for love in the digital world is inseparable from the search for profit. “Tinder is an emotional tech commodity — a commodity that provides feelings and uses technology,” French-Israeli sociologist Eva Eloz told EL PAÍS several months ago. “It’s an emotional technical good that dramatically changes current forms of socialization.”

The rise of Tinder and all the apps that followed has fundamentally changed the way people search for a partner. “They have an impact on the dating landscape and modern couples in many ways,” says Dr. Liu. But what methods have not yet been created. “Do couples become more homogeneous when they meet through carefully selected filters, with overlapping educational views, political opinions, and financial situations?” Liu asks. “Do dating apps make it difficult to find love, given the abundance of options at our fingertips and paralysis when it comes to choosing these reasons?”

We may need years to answer these questions, as they raise complex questions in as yet unexplored scenarios. What seems clear is that the way we meet people has changed forever. Writer Jose Luis Alvet might say that dating is the social encapsulation of what is nothing more than an instinct. In recent years, another layer has been added, a technological, playful, and capitalist layer that turns the process of looking for a date into something exciting and addictive. until it ceases to exist.