Is dating apps getting worse?

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Why does gambling become a horizontal slot machine? An anthropologist’s perspective on dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, and Video Poker

In her 2012 book, Addiction by Design, anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll lays out the different technological mechanisms casinos employ to keep people gambling. The placement of ATMs, the design of casino carpets, and the architecture of buildings is all examples of strategic calculation. As a blurb for a gambling trade show once put it, the various elements making up the modern gambling experience are “symphonies of individual technologies” that come together to “create a single experience,” calibrated in a way to keep people playing, to maximize “time on device.”

Is this sound familiar? Schüll thinks so. She says there are very similar mechanisms in dating apps. “Swiping left and right—it’s almost like a horizontal slot machine. You do not know what you will get.

Schll doesn’t believe these parallels are only limited to dating apps, but they all share the same strategy to reduce friction and hold users in place. So what does it mean then when friction enters the picture? When users spend less time in the machine and more time in the hold?

It’s also true that the growth of paying users has slowed down of late, accompanied by a slight dip in the number of Americans who say they use dating apps. However, one app in particular is down much more than any other—Tinder, creator of the swipe. Though Tinder still holds the title for most commonly used dating app, its overall downloads have been dropping since 2020, while downloads of apps like Bumble and Hinge have continuously increased since 2021. Over the past two years, there has been a decrease in the number of paying users, while the number of active users has fallen.

Modern romance is a web of tricks and artificial boyfriends, according to WIRED. A smarter, more human, and pleasure-filled future is possible.

Explanations for this decline are as numerous as the number of dating apps on the market. It could be wearing off of novelty, it could be disappointment, it could be that sports gambling is taking their time, it could be exhaustion, it could be.

If there is a video poker machine, then there will also be triple video poker, 10-play video poker, and 100 play video poker. “When you move to the next one, you sort of can’t go back. The tolerance effect is what it is. Maybe these apps could have held people to a certain point, and done the work of taking it to a higher, more intense level.

Uncanny Valley Podcast 14: Are Dating Apps Getting Worse? Michael Calore: I’m going to a friend’s house

Michael Calore: We’ve kind of already celebrated. We went away a couple of weekends ago, and that felt right, because we were able to sidestep all of the madness of reservations and making plans and things like that. So we’re doing the same thing actually, we’re going to a friend’s house and we’re having a meal in. Do you have anything to do? Lauren, what are you doing?

Zo Schiffer is a woman. My husband and I aren’t great at either remembering or celebrating Valentine’s. For our anniversary, we havenever once, not once, remembered that it existed. We’re going to a friend’s house for dinner this year and without children, which is more romantic for me than an evening with them. What about you, Mike? What are you going to do?

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Source: Are Dating Apps Getting Worse?

Follow Calore on Bluesky, Lauren Goode on bluesky, and Zo Schiffer on Threads @reporterzoe

You can follow Michael Calore on Bluesky at @snackfight, Lauren Goode on Bluesky at @laurengoode, and Zoë Schiffer on Threads @reporterzoe. Write to us at [email protected].