With the introduction of apps such as Tinder and sites like Match.com dating has been greatly changed by the internet and therefore our mindset concerning dating has changed as well. From my observations this has provided both positive and negative consequences.
For our age group many people use Tinder to chat and meet with those of whatever gender they are attracted to. This opens up many opportunities to meet people you would otherwise never speak to thereby expanding your pool of potential partners. This is good because it heightens the chances of meeting someone you are very compatible with and it works for people that do not have a lot of free time, but it can also affect our behavior in negative ways. I personally only used Tinder for about a week back in high school and got rid of it after meeting one woman off of it (it's an interesting cringy story but I will not get into that today), but all of my single friends currently use the app on a regular basis. Sometimes when we are all hanging one will be on their Tinder account commenting on the women that come up on his screen and most of the comments made of the women are less than respectful. They are almost always objectifying her whether insulting her or "admiring" the way she looks. If she is deemed to be attractive enough she is swiped right upon and he sends an uninspiring or if he is drunk a slightly perverse message to her if they match A few text messages are maybe exchanged and then that tends to end the interaction there or directly after a one time hook up. This type of partner seeking encourages this type of thought and interaction as people's bios have very little information and profiles mostly consist of personal pictures. This could be said to encourage objectification which can then cognitively spread into other parts of a persons life. If persons were then to form dating habits strongly influenced by these types of thoughts it could lead to high rates of unhealthy relationships that could be reflected statistically in later years with higher rates of divorce or domestic issues.
I agree with what you said Michael, when you said that it can increase the rate of having more unhealthy relationships. Using these apps have shaped the person's expectations of someone when wanting to see them in person, but end up seeing them who that person may be that was said to be in the dating page. I know there has been couples that have met through a dating app and getting married, but most of the time it is not how it is. It is easy to be hiding ourselves from who we really are to others through internet websites. So I can see both the positive and negative sides of it.
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