Essay Sample on Effect of Dating App on Modern Dating

Introduction

In the modern era, the use of the internet and the digital media has become an import part of people's life. The rise of dating apps has had a great impact on users' social life in areas such as sex, dating, and intimate relationships. The mobile industry has experienced an increase in the number of dating apps and sites which support the search for sexual and romantic partners. The use of mobile dating apps such as tinder, bumble and OkCupid has greatly changed the dating practices, their romantic interactions and in people's attitude towards sex and relationships in the society.

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Today, the mobile dating applications, including mobile versions of the previous desktop dating websites are a very substantial sector of the current lucrative "app economy." The dating applications have brought into sharp relief to the increased sociocultural effects of mobile media, particularly on privacy and intimacy. The convergence of private and public life in the use of social media implies that platforms that support dating, relationship and sex are closely linked to users lives and their identities in some ways.

The increase in the mobile dating application over the past few years has promoted both the social anxiety and industry hype in the mainstream media and technology press where the politics and ethics of apps such as Grindr and Tinder are the main and regular topics of discussion in mainstream media forums. Because of the impacts of the dating apps on the society, hook-up and dating websites and apps has been studied majorly about specific demographics on specific aspects. The mass use of these application has led to the rise of a new popular scholarly attention to the effects of dating apps on the dating, sexuality and romantic relationships (Essig 60).

In the modern era, the deer and need to find a romantic partner has endured as it is the feeling that finding the right partner can be a challenging task. However, the resources for solving these challenges of dating have changed, with most of the changes traced back to the invention and the use of the internet. According to InternetWorldStats.com (2011), 30 percent of the entire human population in the world have access to the internet. In some parts of the world such as North America, up 80% of the people have access to the internet. As a result, every aspect of contemporary human life, ranging from politics, commerce to culture is affected by the internet in some ways (Arias and Punyanunt-Carter 75).

Concerning dating and development of romantic relationships, the possibility of reaching many potential partners offers several opportunities to people seeking intimate relationships in unprecedented ways. First, whereas the number of potential partners for an individual was in the past limited to members of a person's social network, the internet now offers access to a larger network of possible partners who would have otherwise be inaccessible or unknown in the pre-internet era. Secondly, while the interaction between the potential partners was once based on their geographical proximity, the internet now enables people with no regard to the geographical distance between them using different channels such as image, video, voice, and text. Thirdly, whereas the choice of a partner in the past was largely based on individual personal opinions and intuitions, the dating apps promise to match suitable partners by using data collected from other users. These changes have completely ushered in a new dating era.

In the new online dating era using dating apps, everyone is a potential option. Before the rise of dating apps, people did not "know" as many people as they can be using these applications. Today, using dating apps people can make friends with strangers and spend hours liking these people and chatting with them at the comfort of their house. This technology has, therefore, exposed partner seeking people to thousands of other potential partners. The other big change that dating apps have brought in people dating lives and beyond is its ability to ensure that partners are constantly in touch with one another. Those dating can be in contact with the other as much as they since they can use their phones at their convenience at any time or while undertaking any task. Perhaps one of the recent major debate about dating apps and even using social media as social media is that these platforms make things to move quicker than pre-dating apps days. People can meet on dating apps, and since the main reasons for registering in such social media is to seek a relationship partner, the process of using another person is easier and quicker. People can meet on a dating website in the morning, and the evening they have made their minds that they have found what they were searching. In this case, meeting in person is not a given for the establishment of a relationship. The "constant contact" online using dating apps has made the initial need for meeting in person less necessary. Instead, some dating apps such as Tinder, Match, and OKCupid allow people to build the entire relationship before potential partners meet in person.

Also, the dating apps the process of selecting a potential partner is generally based on once judgmental and not the character of another person. The suitability of a person is determined by his/her attractiveness in the profile picture. For example, in Tinder, a person is supposed to swipe left or right depending on the physical appearance of a person. Even though is not a new process, because people tend to judge other based on attractive they are, in real life social set-up, it is unethical to tell someone to get away just because they are not as attractive as they expect them to be. Dating apps have led to new ways of expressing love. With the onset of social media, people can use it to express love instead of traditional methods where people had to meet physically. For example, video chatting and features like FaceTime as made it possible for people to see each other face to face, talk and express love instead of meeting physically. Perhaps one of the major contributions of dating apps in dating is that it is easier to find a potential partner who has a common interest. This is because sometimes people fill their interest in their dating accounts, thus making it easier for another person to go through them even before they initiate conversations.

In some cases, the dating apps used people profile data to match people. Lastly, dating apps have made dating an easy task. This is because it is easier to find a partner, while at the same time, it is easier to go through rejection. This is because rejection feels different in dating sites than in person. At the same time, sending a text message is much easier than one on one communication as in the case of face to face conversation or while using mobile phones (Essig 60).

The increased number of potential mates make it possible for a person looking for a hookup or date with a person different from them. It is because, the people who meet at places such as work or school, are more likely to have a common characteristic, while those on dating apps are more likely to be different in some ways. There are, however, some disadvantage of dating people beyond one's natural social environment. In some cases, individuals who are not very similar to their romantic partners have a high chance of divorcing or breaking up. This is because dating on apps resembles dating in sort of context vacuum. In this case, classmates, friends, relatives, and co-workers do not show up to flesh out scrutinize the complete picture and character of the person until at the advanced stages of the relationship. In the traditional model of dating, the circumstances under which partners met played a crucial role in providing a common group for their relationship, unlike in the dating apps where people met, interacts, and establish a relationship on a "vacuum," with nothing common but just the desire to find a mate.

Apart from the changes brought significant changes brought about by dating apps to the entire dating process, there are other far-reaching consequences of using this technology on a person's romantic relationships and sex life in the society. According to Kaufmann (2012) online dating users often gent disillusionized on the purpose and need of dating. To some people, online dating is a game that is worth enjoyed. This is especially through for those who use dating apps for sex and not any long time relationship. Their attitude, however, changes with time as all-pervasive utilitarianism and cynicism eventually sicken them because they feel as if they lost the sense of human decency. At this time, the players become too cold and feel that nothing is coming off the entire dating. Kaufmann found out that people often get upset after unsatisfactorily chilly sex dates that came as a result of online dating. Also, some people addicted to online dating to the extent that they cannot date in the real-life situation (Kaufmann 70).

Dating apps have become a new terrain for gender struggle instead of establishing a long-lasting relationship. For example, a woman is using online dating as a way of demanding their turn at practicing their right to pleasure. According to Kaufmann, for millennia, men have exercised these rights. However, the way women exercise these rights has made them a subject of exploitation by the worst kind of men. This is because such women want men who are not too polite or gentle. However, after some time, these women get disappointed (Carpenter and McEwan 80). The disappointing experience of online dating using dating apps is partly because people want conflicting things from its: sex, love, guilt-free sex without emotional entanglement, freedom and commitment and tender cuddle.

Many studies have shown that dating apps increase the level of sexual risk behavior among people who meet as a result of their interaction in dating apps. These many of such individual are more likely to engage themselves in unprotected sex and be diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) because of their large number of sexual partners. Studies show that student who has both online and offline partners are more likely to be experience unplanned pregnancies, diagnosed with STI, and a large number of oral and vaginal sex partners. Most of these victims are those who have sex for the sake of sex and not because of being in love with the sexual partner. In this case, dating apps act as a field where people have sex without rules or with no allowance for love. The other partner acts just as sex objects to be used in satisfying one's sexual desires.

In the late 1800s, Friedrich Nietzsche a German philosopher explained more about love. He argued that society is turning towards nihilism (a world where people have no regard to values and morals). He stated that romantic love was fun and it created a friendship that formed a strong foundation for future long term relationships. From Nietzsche point of view, the rise and popularity of dating apps that encourage users to judge potential partners in a matter of seconds is an example of a society where obsessed with instant gratification and pleasure. The need for a healthy relationship that was built on a high level of moral standards is long forgotten. Dating app has played a significant role in promoting "one-stand" sexual intimacy (Nietzsche et al. 50). Sex is no longer a sacred activity between two lovers but just a bodily desire that must satisfy in any way irrespective morals. The rise of dating app in the society is a sign of excessive self-indulgence which comes at the expense of establishing long-term relationships.

The judgmental perspective of selecting a desired partner based...