Guardian online dating destroying love

Falling out of love with dating apps

To keep a man, you must be a maid in the living room, a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom. Love used to be regarded as a refuge from the more impersonal, calculating, pressurised, efficiency-driven world of work. However, the world of love in its romantic and sexual dimensions is now as much subject to performance pressures as interactions in the workplace, and, like the latter, has become an arena of inflated expectations. Sex is increasingly being reconfigured as a leisure activity, separated from relationship and involves the maximising of pleasure and the minimising of commitment. It is a world reportedly dominated by fantasy and duplicity, where youth, health and beauty are at a premium. In his book, Liquid Love: on the Frailty of Human Bonds , Polish sociologist, Zygmunt Bauman, argues that an increasing number of people feel unable to commit to relationships, have nomadic lifestyles and diminishing genuine attachments. With the increase of individualism, the collapse of traditional bonds, increased mobility and intensification of financial pressures, it is argued that involuntary solitude has become endemic and people are thrown back on their own resources more than ever before. The resultant emotional and sensual disconnection affects not only the elderly, but also other age groups. For example, ChildLine now cites loneliness as one of the main problems reported to them by young people. Yet this remains a taboo subject and is often viewed as a personal inadequacy or pathology, rather than a culturally induced privation.

REGISTER TO VIEW

This apparent disinterest may go some way towards explaining a "slide" in the stock price of some of the biggest companies in the online dating industry including Match Group, which owns Tinder and Hinge. Options "abound" with online dating apps, said the LA Times last year. The paper quoted research showing that "heterosexual couples in the US are now more likely to meet a romantic partner online" than through other forms of connection. Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

REGISTER TO VIEW

I used to remove myself from experiences in favour of chasing matches. S wipe. For a while I was swiping so much I was barely thinking. Dating apps had hijacked my fingers, brain and evenings. I have to keep on going. This is the key to my happy ending.

REGISTER TO VIEW

After a decade on the dating apps, I’ve encountered more phoneys than you can poke a stick at

About The Electric Typewriter We search the net to bring you the best nonfiction, articles, essays and journalism. The Electric Typewriter. Subscribe to our newsletter. How did it become so broken?

REGISTER TO VIEW

REGISTER TO VIEW