As we move month to month in quarantine, and practicing physical distancing, our dating app usage is continuously increasing.
As humans, we crave intimate connections with others. These connections can be in the form of physical, sexual, or even emotional. So, it makes sense that as we physically move away from one another, that we start to seek out alternative forms of connection via dating apps, like Bumble, Tinder, Grindr, Open, Coffee Meets Bagel and Christian Mingle to name a few.
Multiple dating apps, some mentioned above, saw a surge in membership, and hours spent on the apps looking for any kind of connection, or to create a new one.
But, as we have seen the magnitude of horror stories regarding these dating apps, such as harassing behaviour, sexually violent language, and of course the unsolicited nude images, sometimes I wonder, could these dating apps that pride themselves on bringing people closer together, could also be the crow-bar that is driving us apart?
To help answer this question I brought Assistant Professor, Adam Davies, from Guelph University to discuss his research with Grindr, a dating app exclusively for men looking for men. So, is Grindr making us lonely? Check out the interview below
You can email Adam Davies at adam.davies@uoguelph.ca