Dating apps: is it time for a fresh approach?

Whilst the success of companies such as Tinder, Bumble and Hinge is undeniable, have they had their day?

Research from the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships has found singles have become addicted to using dating apps. Leading to compulsive use which has in turn made them feel lonelier than ever before. These apps plague on people’s addictive natures and encourage you to keep swiping/liking, whilst often having to pay extra for it, because ‘you never know who could pop-up next as a potential match.’

Studies have shown that people with a lack of confidence tend to become more compulsive in the amount they swipe, which due to the

rejection rate of dating apps, leads to them feeling less confident than when they started in the first place. 

After a while the very nature of being presented with endless profiles to be judged and sorted in to ‘yes’ and ‘no’ categories has less of a feeling about the search for love and more that of a game.

Of course Tinder is designed to be addictive, what successful tech company doesn’t want their app to be addictive in some way? Gamification, is a widely accepted approach to making tech, in any industry, more addictive and the likes of Tinder, Bumble and Hinge are experts at it.

Tinder’s co-founder, Jonathon Badeem, admits that Tinder’s algorithm has been inspired by a behavioural reinforcement psychology known as a variable ratio reward schedule. Users are presented with a number of unpredictable responses, potential profiles, before they get the one they want, a match. This infrequent hit of the win reinforces searching behaviour, which in turn encourages users to keep on swiping. It is exactly the same emotions to associated with gambling – an industry made by prying on people’s addictive natures. 

As Conuto emphasises the problem with endless swiping, rarely meeting matches and living in hope that the perfect person is one swipe/like away is that something about the slot-machine satisfaction when users get a match isn’t quite as fulfilling as they’d like and the endless choice of partners soon becomes less than liberating and more paralysing.

The success of dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble and Hinge is undeniable but so is singles’ frustrations and boredom with chatting to strangers on their phone and the amount of effort and luck it takes to actually meet.

Proudly introducing Thursday, where everything you want from a dating app happens on one day. Can you guess which day? Course you can.

The goal: to make Thursday the most exciting day to be single, every week.

Why limit it to one day of the week? Because anything good should be in moderation and we firmly believe that there is more to life than dating apps. Thursday is an introductory app that offers singles less, but gives them so much more.

P.S. Check out www.BeDatingAppAware.org ;)