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‘It’s not you, it’s me’ is the gist of college student qualms with dating apps. Hook-up culture declines while young people search for genuine connection.

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[-] Geek_King@lemmy.world 174 points 1 year ago

Match Group deserves to collapse. Online dating has never been fun, but since Match Group bought up nearly every dating app, they've all become very homogeneous and outrageously more expensive.

Seriously it's all just carbon copies of each other.

[-] ElBarto@sh.itjust.works 123 points 1 year ago

I like how the title implies that the college students have dumped the app because the CEO has stepped down, as if they only kept using it to not hurt the CEO's feelings.

[-] deleted@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Many posts in lemmy have confusing titles.

I wonder if posters like OP brainstorm for 10 min like.. How can I make the title more confusing?

Edit: sorry to all OPs, I’ve never noticed titles are the same after visiting the article page.

[-] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 17 points 1 year ago

It's the title on the article.

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

When I posted an article I got a message saying it would be deleted unless I altered my title to the title of the article on the site. I didn't care for the article on the site but rather the content. I haven't posted since so I don't know if that has changed, but I was kind of turned off from posting do to that.

That was in the News thread though.

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[-] Salamendacious@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I took it the exact opposite way. College students aren't using the app and the CEO was forced out... I'm sorry "stepped down"

[-] crit@links.hackliberty.org 17 points 1 year ago

Then it should be the other way around "CEO forced to step down as college students aren't using the app anymore", the latter caused the former.

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[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 81 points 1 year ago

She’s succeeded by Lidiane Jones, a former CEO of Slack, who’s looking for opportunities to use artificial intelligence in dating app algorithms.

Oh great, just what we needed, app sponsored AI bots to lure people into paying premium

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[-] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 66 points 1 year ago

It doesn't help that these dating apps are all deeply enshittified. The free experience is kind of shitty, and the paid is suspect and expensive.

They could do more to focus on matching by something other than pictures. Shared interests, maybe.

They could do more to deal with bots, scams, and low effort users.

They could stop showing me people that live in Thailand. For some reason tinder likes to show me people that live 8000 miles away. Probably because they're paying for it, but it makes the app worse for me.

I can't speak to what college kids are up to these days. I'm old. I've never had a lot of luck "just meeting" people in real life, though. I always struggled with figuring out if someone was available and interested. I have several unpleasant memories of asking people out in college that I'd been spending time with, only for them to be like "sorry my boyfriend [you've never met and I never mentioned] and I are exclusive". (Which may have been a lie to let me down gently, I guess.)

Also when you have a deal breaker or two, having that up front is helpful.

[-] chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

I know rejection is scary, but its not reallyna reflection of you rather then a reflection of someones preference. You could be a greek god and still get rejected.

Keep trying, but in the meantime also focus on you. Do what you need to do to love yourself, and then the rest will follow

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[-] dinckelman@lemmy.world 46 points 1 year ago

The dating apps are just a symptom of the disease, to be completely honest. The hook-up culture isn't going anywhere, because despite what people say, that's what continues to happen. Anyone longing for a genuine connection are wasting their time on these apps, especially if you're guy. People need to work on the impossible standards, on the constant approval-seeking/instant gratification, and set their priorities straight

[-] girltwink@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

I've found several long term relationships off tinder as a WLW. It seems to work pretty well for me. The system doesn't seem to be working for guys, and that's unfortunate. But a lot of the pressure on women to settle for any man has gone away as women have become more self reliant. The whole thing has become far more consensual and less mandatory for survival. That's going to influence men's dating success no matter what medium people use to find matches.

[-] dinckelman@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

My personal experience with these has been even worse than the average, because my demi ass just doesn't find most of the people on those apps interesting.

After half a year of some activity, I got maybe 2 likes, and 0 matches. Obviously I don't even know who those people are, because the app doesn't show me until I pay. Issue is, if I didn't already swipe on those people, I don't care who they are anymore.

Ironically, when I checked out the BFF section, I got several pings within a few days

[-] girltwink@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

This is ultimately a big part of it, and it's universal, not just in dating. Most friendships are "friendships of convenience" and the other types of relationships typically progress from there. But in western culture, we don't have any third places, and so we just plain don't make friendships of convenience anymore.

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[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 40 points 1 year ago

I wish dating apps were more tailored towards longer term connections. It's hard to meet people, but I don't want to go on tinder to meet people either.

[-] Salamendacious@lemmy.world 35 points 1 year ago

I sometimes think they might be intentionally steering people away from longer term connections because the core model of app development teams nowadays is constantly driving engagement. A long term connection means (hopefully) no more engagement.

[-] Icaria@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

That's almost precisely their business model.

Get users, retain users, turn users into recurring paying customers.

Dating apps don't exist to find you connections, they exist to keep you hooked. They'll give you the bare minimum of opportunities necessary to make you think they're viable, drag it out as long as possible, pressure you to pay for premium, and if they ever developed a matching system that worked well, they'd bury it to stop half their userbase from marrying each other and uninstalling the apps.

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[-] dangblingus@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I remember back in the day if people found out you were on a dating website, you were basically totally ostracized. Then people realized, well shit, if I'm going to be ostracized for looking for love online, I might as well do it on the free website (POF). But POF basically became the "drug addict and single mom machine". Then dating apps came out and it became trendy and cool because you didn't have to actually connect with anyone and you could be aloof and detached and have NSA sex with strangers. Now everyone hates dating apps again. Normalize talking to people about real things in public!

[-] Fungah@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

I'm not sure if this applies where you are but since covid it is HARD to talk to people irl. I'm chatty and will strike up conversations everywhere I go. Before covid most people engaged. Since they look at me like I'm grow>ng a second head. Dating apps have always worked well for me though. Damn well.

[-] Salamendacious@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

I remember people would lie about how they met because they didn't want to say they met online. Oh how the times have been-a-changing

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[-] SnipingNinja@slrpnk.net 32 points 1 year ago
[-] Asafum@feddit.nl 23 points 1 year ago

Yeah wtf with this "it's not you, it's me." It's 100 fucking percent them.

I've been on and off dating sites for over a decade. I watched them all turn to complete shit because Tinder got successful with the swipe only b.s and Business Educated People said "oooo, money! Let's just completely copy that and even remove useful features we once had to keep people stuck on the sites longer!" and they've completely failed at, or don't care to, address the bot/scammer problem.

Fuck, POF turned into fucking TWITCH for christs sake... They have a streaming function now where people specifically state they are not looking for anything they're just there to stream and take peoples money...

[-] zepheriths@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

Here's why your apps are failing. You don't have proper ratios. When women are outnumbered 2 to 1 that means about 33% of the user base can't use the app as intended. That's why you are losing users

[-] elbarto777@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

2 to 1? Lol! I bet it's more like 7 to 1.

[-] mojo@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago

There's nothing they can do about that...

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[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Ehh. That would matter if it was. 1:1 ratio of people meet and leave the platform but it's not. One girl can and will date multiple guys from the platform and vice versa.
100% can use the app as intended. 33% just don't have a 1:1 match to rely on...but if we're being honest no meeting spot ever has a 1:1 chance even if there are same number of men and women present. That's how life works.

[-] neptune@dmv.social 23 points 1 year ago

I said it in a different thread.

I think dating apps were an important tool for women to assert control of their dating lives, ten years ago. And I think for the new generation of young women, a total wall between their daily life and dating life, is less necessary.

My two cents.

[-] sudoshakes@reddthat.com 20 points 1 year ago

Why is that wall needed? Can you expand on this more?

[-] neptune@dmv.social 22 points 1 year ago

You don't know what I am talking about?

There was a big trend, and it still exists to an extent today, that many woman do not want to be approached at the gym, etc.

I feel men have finally started adapting to how shitty their behavior was, meaning women are relying less on online dating as a way to stop the feeling of daily irl harassment.

[-] Fades@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

How exactly does an app help to stop the feeling of daily irl harassment? Do you seriously believe those problems have now been solved? If so, how did apps bring this about.

Men weren’t keeping women from taking the initiative, so it’s not like these apps gave women a power they previously had no control over. Yes they felt far safer but walking away from these apps just reintroduces that inherent risk.

I’m pretty sure there is about the same amount of shitty behavior, just look at where we are with abortion in the US. One party out of two is mask off sexist against women.

But dating apps cleaned up societies shitty behavior toward women?

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[-] echodot@feddit.uk 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Have they tried not making a shit app, that actually seems purposely designed to not achieve its stated goals? Just a thought.

How about not locking all the actual useful features behind a paywall. If people actually get dates they will be prepared to pay for more premium features but they actually have to get dates to begin with.

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[-] pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

So, how should people find mates? Obviously these stupid apps don't work and the chance encounter system we use in western societies don't, and neither do the marriage-as-transaction systems societies used centuries ago, or the subjugation of any one gender. So how should we ensure most people who want a mate get one?

[-] Caradoc879@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago

First thing to do is to not use neckbeardy scientific language like 'find a mate'. It makes me think of the way ferengi say 'Female'. It comes off as very creepy and lecherous.

Go do things you enjoy doing. Find local groups or hobby/card/game shops with events. Get to know people. Become a known person. And be yourself. Pretending to be anything or anyone you aren't will always backfire in a real relationship.

The big thing is to never go out with the goal of hooking up or finding someone. It adds an extra layer of weirdness if you do meet someone, and a massive extra disappointment every time you don't. Just be friendly and casual. Things will fall into place.

[-] slurpeesoforion@startrek.website 12 points 1 year ago

I assumed they were Australian.

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[-] Fungah@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

I've only ever met people online.

And it's allowed me to be the depraved slut I am today.

Let the squares go do square things.

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[-] flicker@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

There's a lot to be said about it but anyone with a brain will agree to this, and simply this;

Good.

Don't qualify it. Don't turn it into yet another stale argument that will invariably link some grifter's asinine manifesto. Everyone from every side can agree that this is a good thing. Let it be enough.

[-] Camilo@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 1 year ago

How about a fediverse dating service? 😏

[-] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 47 points 1 year ago

But I'm looking for a woman...

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[-] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 23 points 1 year ago

So basically a MTG convention with the expectation that there'd be sex at the end?

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[-] gohixo9650@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 1 year ago

short answer: not possible without real moderation by people who are getting paid for that.

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[-] kosanovskiy@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Hello there. 👋

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[-] nutsack@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

how are you supposed to connect with anyone if you don't have an app that makes no sense

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this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
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