What has become of millennial dating?

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The millennial generation is no stranger to the online macrocosm and we’re entering an era in which everything is shifting to be electronically connected. From our food being delivered at the touch of a button, to Weatherspoon's table service (an absolute Godsend), we are online constantly, which is why it came as no surprise when the dating app, Tinder, was launched in 2012. With its well known “swipe right” idiom and fitting fiery logo, Tinder has undoubtedly conquered the dating world with over 5 million paying subscribers to date. As this becomes the “most common way” to meet people in 2019 - with statistics for heterosexual couples who met online sky rocketing to 39% - Tinder is considered to be an easily accessible platform when searching for Mr or Mrs Right and has played an enormous role in the stories of how many couples met. However, this has also positioned them at the forefront of the firing line when discussing abusive and inappropriate behaviour from some members of the app. Tinder boss and founder, Elie Seidman stated “we have massive teams of moderators benefitting from AI. We have things in the app to educate people about how to behave. If you have behaved badly, we want you out” reassuring some hesitant members that the issue is being tackled as efficiently as possible. This still begs the question, though, as to whether relationships formed through online dating apps, such as Tinder can be considered as ‘authentic’ and ‘natural’ as meeting a partner in person and whether or not these platforms are shaping the romance of this generation. There are multiple advantages to meeting someone through a dating app, exposure being one of them; someone wanting to venture outside their general group of friends would benefit from the variety of people to match with. In addition, many people consider themselves to be a lot more fearless behind a keyboard, and therefore, in some ironic sense, can show an unfiltered version of themselves online.

Tinder has announced that they’re releasing their first ever interactive 5 minute ‘post-apocalyptic’ adventure video, a pastiche of the famous ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ series, titled “Swipe Night”. Happening every Sunday of October, Swipe Night is aiming to gain a deeper understanding of members’ personalities, to make more accurate matches based on the seven-second decisions you make in the experience (choose wisely, there’s no way back)! Arguably, this will increase the amount of characteristics Tinder understand about the members, thus, spiking genuine matches. Although the idea of an alternate reality experience to meet The One sounds like something to cross off the bucket list, it is questionable as to whether this is the direction that we should be taking relationships in this era. The media and online universe is impacting societies beyond comprehension already, should we let this bleed into our dating lives too? As an emotion that is an enigma in itself, should we be trying to build love with algorithms? In answer to this, love expert Klinenburg states “they’re changing our norms, making us ruder, flakier and more self-involved.” Whether we’ll ever return to the days where first dates involved stomach somersaults and butterflies, flowers and chocolates, over the midnight “u up?” text, is a mystery but it is clear that our society is shifting in the direction of efficiency and mobility, so we can only expect and accept that our relationships will, most likely, do the same.