I Found True Love in an App… And You Can Too
One bit of advice transformed my luck with online dating
As a millennial, I grew up alongside the internet. From Oregon Trail and instant messenger to chat rooms and Wikipedia, I often felt as if the internet created exactly what I needed as I needed it.
So the rise of dating apps in my 20s felt like a natural progression: we’d already used the internet to find new friends and stalk old ones, why should sexual and romantic relationships be any different?
But the world of dating apps revealed a new challenge. The landscape changed quicker than I could keep up: Plenty of Fish became skeezy overnight, Tinder went from the ultimate hook-up app to the home base for bored couples seeking unicorns (single individuals willing to engage sexually with both halves of a couple) in a matter of months, and people were suddenly marrying their top tier OkCupid matches.
All of these changes were in full swing as I left hook-up culture behind and officially began looking for a partner. After a few weeks of attempting to unearth a genuine connection via the same dating apps that had successfully guided me through my era of casual sexual encounters, I was on the verge of giving up dating altogether.
