As a young person, or as some of my friends would say “younger”, if you’re single in today’s day and age, it’s harder to find someone that you would want to get into a relationship with.

The entire dating culture has changed in the era of social media and dating apps. In the past, there was a large focus on a more natural, more human oriented introductions. Meaning that you would meet people at work, or through friends and family, or even at religious events.

This not only made the connections more human, but also more geological limited to where you lived at the time. In today’s digital age, those same limitations and ways of meeting people are not there anymore.

Through the smartphone era, dating has become more gamified. On apps like Tinder or Bumble, it’s more like you’re swiping through a deck of cards rather than swiping through actual people.

It gives a more of a disconnect between the actual people that you’re talking to and looking at rather than remembering that they’re all people with lives, and personalities. The choices also overwhelm you, making it feel like there’s always a better option out there rather than what’s in front of you and that you’re happy with.

A lot of the dating culture now is also around more material matters rather than connection and feelings. The need for stable employment has always been a factor, both in the past and today, but now it seems like how much you make at that stable job makes more of an impact now more than ever.

It also doesn’t help that due to dating apps, looks have also become much more important, due to the fact that you aren’t meeting them in person and only looking at their face and a small biography on their account.

A Digital Representation of the Gamification of Dating Apps. (Credit: Sammy Sander via Pixabay)

This has led to a lot of the younger generations becoming burnt out on dating applications, and steering back towards more human connection. There have been movements to put more earnest and personable biographies and factoids rather than the cool and detached that were the personas that dominated applications in the past.

The question is if this trend in dating culture will continue. Will we continue to see the trend to more in person contact and meets, or will we see the dating culture continue to rely on applications and just a revolving trend of how to write your biography.

I, for one, am hoping that we go back to face to face meetings, and put the apps behind us.