swiping more,

committing

less

With endless game-like swiping mechanisms, dating apps are literally programmed to make you stick around for longer. The apps' best interest is to keep users coming back for more, designed like slot machines to trick the pleasure center of our brains. They were created so that users crave cheaper rewards, like a match or a message, over the ultimate reward, which is a meaningful connection or even a relationship. That initial burst of excitement when you receive one match may quickly disappear when you find another profile that isn't a match.

This trains your mind to keep searching for that instant gratification, trapping you in an endless cycle of high & low emotions. Experts have linked this cycle to other addictive experiences, like gambling or casino games. Once you're hooked on swiping, you'll come across tens, hundreds, or thousands of faces on your screen, without ever meeting them in person or pursuing a real-life relationship. In addition to this, this contactless exposure is inherently overwhelming for your mind. Dating apps are fundamentally difficult on a person's nervous system because there are far too many options to meaningfully engage with every single one, resulting in cognitive overload.