Fewer people are logging onto dating apps. But is the problem the sites or how we use them?

When someone asks my close friend Yukon how she and her partner met, she cheekily responds: “The old fashioned way—Tinder!” 

Long before Match.com or OKCupid hit the scene, and way before we all got tired of the excessive swiping on Tinder, or the notorious pay-to-play model of Hinge’s “rose jail,” which keeps you endlessly scrolling and seems to hold your best matches behind a paywall, people have met each other on the internet. Lonely hearts have gathered online to connect as early as the 1950s and ‘60s—some gamers and queer folks found themselves turning to computers to date.

The lure of meeting your perfect match from a massive candidate pool was enticing and, for a while there, a popular way to meet your next date. But even though people are more online than ever, our collective appetite for dating apps seems to be spoiling: Data shows fewer people are logging onto dating apps during their doom scrolls. 

So, what’s with the renewed romanticization of stumbling upon a drunk stranger at a bar or a party? Surely finding a sexual or romantic partner IRL can’t be deeper than the screen simply because the first contact was face-to-face. 

Has the proliferation of dating apps killed sex and romance, or have we just forgotten how to use the internet to truly connect with others? 

Inflation is killing the mood

Statistics show that young people are dating and fornicating less, and it’s not because all of us have suddenly abandoned love and romance to become jaded “volcels” (voluntary celibates). 

One reason people seem to be dating less is that everything is really freaking expensive right now. Forget supporting a second family on today’s salaries—even buying drinks for someone else on a date can feel like a real hit to the bank account. It’s no wonder 86 percent of U.S. adults in a recent survey reported putting off dating due to financial pressure.

Plus, going analog is the new, coolest trend. The invasion of artificial intelligence, overreach of surveillance, and the overall internet fatigue that has lingered since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns have inspired Gen Z to abandon their phones and go offline. 

In a political and economic climate like this, it’s no wonder the dating apps have........

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