Are You Addicted To Dating?
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Are You Addicted To Dating?

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Recently, I was talking to my friend Jo about her life as a something singleton. Her marriage broke up two years ago – since then, she cheerfully admitted, she has become an online dating obsessive: “I’m now signed up to so many apps, I can barely remember which ones I’m on. Recent studies of social trends show that more and more of us are dating via apps.

Credit: Jim Malo. Some are for people obsessed with fitness, some for getting out and doing things together, some are simply if you could ever call it simple for finding The One.

In fact, it’s unusual if a young, single person isn’t using dating apps. Instagram, but after a few days I realised it was less addictive than a dating app, and the urge to scroll wore off. He’s probably married with three children.

While online dating used to be a shameful secret for many people, using dating apps nowadays is the norm, especially amongst millennials. From Bumble and Tinder to Happn and Hinge, there are endless apps out there, providing singletons with a never-ending stream of possible suitors through which to swipe, match and crush.

But the trouble is, as fun as swiping is, after a while it starts to feel more like a game than a way to meet a potential soulmate. Like online shopping, if you will. We all double-screen these days, and for many a millennial, as soon as you plonk yourself down on the sofa and turn on the TV, out comes the phone and the swiping begins, almost without thinking. But is this doing us any good?

I decided to give up dating apps for a month and see what happened.