In the hyperconnected world in which we find ourselves, it is not surprising that the vast majority of couples today have met through a dating application. Tinder, Badoo, Grinder, Bumble, Meetic… There are countless apps designed specifically for you to find a partner. The stressful pace of life, work and daily chores cause many young people (and not so young) to turn to dating apps to arrange a date with someone interesting. Especially, post COVID-19. Not surprisingly, during the pandemic the use of Tinder increased by 40% among users of generation Z. However, giving a ‘like’ or rejecting someone as if we were looking at a catalog has emotional effects on our brain.
Last 2022 Tinder, the dating app par excellence, turned 10 years old. Last year it already had 500 million downloads and more than 70,000 million ‘matches’ to its credit. Not surprisingly, Tinder created a platform that has made flirting look like a game, getting users to return to their app over and over again. A study from the University College of London and collected by the BBC explains this fact through dopamine. Dopamine —crucial in any action we take before a dating app— acts as a transmitter that makes us feel pleasure when the dating app notifies us that we have matched someone.
Apps to flirt can affect our brain, as stated by Gabriela Paoli, a psychologist and author of the book ‘Digital Health: keys to a healthy use of technology’, in an interview for La Vanguardia: “During virtual flirting you can fall into certain insincere behaviors since generally through these apps one teaches or makes visible his most desirable or attractive side”. In other words, you have to be especially careful when using dating apps because not everything we see on the screen can be as good as it may seem to the naked eye. In this regard, it is necessary that we have good emotional management that allows us to use dating applications consciously and responsibly. Dating apps can be the first step to meet someone interesting so that, later in person, you can establish a long-term face-to-face relationship.
