Online Dating, The Takeover of Hookup Culture.

2024+ years of humankind, around 30 of which have included dating apps. Today dating apps may be a common thing around the world, but for most of human existence the concept would appear impossible. For hundreds of years love was a convenient and economical decision, the 20th century saw the shift in this mindset; suddenly love in a partnership went from a rarity to an expectation. Before dating apps, came online dating. In the 1990s many people partook in email exchanging relationships, and used web pages to find others they might spark a connection with. With the release of the iPhone and its quick adaptation into society, one could find an app for anything; so of course, there would be apps to meet romantic prospects. 

One of the main differences with connections on dating apps to those formed “organically”, aside from the obvious, was the ability to carry on multiple different interactions at once without commitment to any one person. With this came an increased acceptance in dating culture; it is important to note that dating and relationships are very different things. Dating can refer to either an exclusive couple, or a singular person investing time in their love life exploring many different possible candidates. Relationships are a commitment between two or more people in a romantic way. 

Throughout the 1990s came a wave of dating and intimacy culture that was previously deemed too distasteful and scandalous. Television shows started showing characters having casual intimacy lives with whomever they pleased; dating apps gave people an easier way to do this. Those who disliked settings like bars and clubs in which people often met could now interact with others in a way they felt comfortable with. As one might expect this quickly led to an increase in hookup culture as we know it today.

Personally, I have no issue with dating apps, I find them an accessible and easy way to meet both romantic interests and friends. I am however not blind to the repercussions of this new style of dating, casual dating isn't as accepted, hookups are idolized, "meet cutes" are on the downfall, catfishing, and people are losing the ability to "read the room" when flirting in real life. Then of course there are the serious dangers of online dating, such as meeting a random person on the internet, though with that logic, what would the difference meeting a random person in a bar, they could be just as dangerous, or just as amazing.

The point is less whether dating apps are the new wave, or poisoning the dating world, but simply the reality of the modern world we live in, it is not going away, nor will face to face dating, it is simply allowing one for accessibility to explore their own needs and desires.