What I've Learned from a Decade on the Dating Apps

Wow that was depressing just to type out.

Sometime in 2013, a year after a broken engagement and ready to jump into the dating pool, I began hearing about a dating app called Tinder. Websites like eHarmony, Match, and OkCupid had been around for a while, but Tinder was different: It was on your phone, its location services let you find people nearby, and you got to do that fun thing with your thumb: swipe. Tinder was the first to digitally game-ify love.

Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash

Other, less hookup-oriented dating apps soon rolled out, including Hinge, Bumble, and Coffee Meets Bagel. Today there are apps for people who think they are “elite,” like Raya and The League. JSwipe is for Jewish millennials, Bristlr is for bearded men and the women who love them, and Settle for Love is for people willing to embrace imperfections and post unflattering photos in their profile. To this day, no one knows why Coffee Meets Bagel is called that.

Millennials were the first adopters of dating apps; Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble are the …