One of the most common ways couples meet is also the least ‘satisfying' — and leads to marital troubles: study
Collectively, dating apps like Tinder, Hinge and Bumble have amassed hundreds of millions of users, and increasingly, they're becoming a more popular way for singles of all ages to date.
3 For many online daters, long distance or excessive travel can result in lower relationship satisfaction.
Jacob Lund – stock.adobe.com
Indeed, dating apps are arguably the best way to find first dates and no-strings-attached lovers, but psychology researchers wanted to know whether committed relationships born online are built to last.
In light of this growing demographic of digitally devised married couples, a new study, published in Computers in Human Behavior, explored how the place a couple meets impacts their relationship down the road.
The study revealed that not all of these marriages born in the mainframe hold up to couples who began their relationships IRL.
The study issued a survey to 923 married adults based in the US, and around half of the studied adults met their spouse online.
According to the study, online daters consistently reported less satisfying and stable marriages than offline daters did, leading to what the researchers called the 'online dating effect.'
While differing individual factors like age, prior dating experience, and personality traits can all do their fair share of romantic wreckage, the study focused on 'external influences on courtship such as societal marginalization and geographic distance.'
These external influences can impact emotional and physical vulnerability as well as conceptions of external approval.
3 In a 2013 study, researchers found that online daters reported more satisfying marriages than traditionally introduced couples did.
Kaspars Grinvalds – stock.adobe.com
With online dating, couples are typically matched up via an algorithm that detects user data and previous activity to suggest potential compatibility.
These couples also typically don't face the same initial pressure from friends or families as online daters tend to introduce their partners to their loved ones after the relationship becomes more established.
3 For many couples, familial approval can be a make-or-break factor.
djile – stock.adobe.com
While this phenomenon can be liberating for the couple at first, it can also lead to a sense of insecurity among one or both partners, especially when considering the lack of initial external approval and the amount of time already invested in the relationship — which may lead an individual to tough it out, though these couples are admittedly less likely to make it to marriage.
Typically, the couples in the study who met online were younger and more recently married, which could also factor into feelings of instability.
Although the study's pool of online daters reported less satisfying marriages overall than couples who met in person, the quality of these connections was still considered relatively higher than in comparable studies in the past, the researchers clarified.
Not all couples who meet online are guaranteed to glitch. As The Post previously reported, online dating can take on a dark side. Those who are insecure about their looks, socially anxious or extra-sensitive to rejection are more likely than others to use dating apps in a problematic way, and often, become obsessed with these platforms.
In some cases, a preoccupation with online dating can result in chemical imbalances that can even affect libido levels, so swipe carefully — depending on how you operate, you could end up with a future spouse or hormone instability.
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Boston Globe
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- Boston Globe
The Tea app was intended to help women date safely. Then it got hacked.
The app and the breach highlight the fraught nature of seeking romance in the age of social media. Here's what to know: Tea was meant to help women date safely Tea founder Sean Cook, a software engineer who previously worked at Salesforce and Shutterfly, says on the app's website that he founded the company in 2022 after witnessing his own mother's 'terrifying'' experiences. Cook said they included unknowingly dating men with criminal records and being 'catfished'' — deceived by men using false identities. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Tea markets itself as a safe way for women to anonymously vet men they might meet on dating apps such as Tinder or Bumble — ensuring that the men are who they say they are, not criminals and not already married or in a relationship. 'It's like people have their own little Yelp pages,'' said Aaron Minc, whose Cleveland firm, Minc Law, specializes in cases involving online defamation and harassment. Advertisement In an Apple Store review, one woman wrote that she used a Tea search to investigate a man she'd begun talking to and discovered 'over 20 red flags, including serious allegations like assault and recording women without their consent.'' She said she cut off communication. 'I can't imagine how things could've gone had I not known," she wrote. Advertisement A surge in social media attention over the past week pushed Tea to the No. 1 spot on Apple's U.S. App Store as of July 24, according to Sensor Tower, a research firm. In the seven days from July 17-23, Tea downloads shot up 525% compared to the week before. Tea said in an Instagram post that it had reached 4 million users. Tea has been criticized for invading men's privacy A female columnist for The Times of London newspaper, who signed into the app, on Thursday called Tea a 'man-shaming site'' and complained that 'this is simply vigilante justice, entirely reliant on the scruples of anonymous women. With Tea on the scene, what man would ever dare date a woman again?'' 'Over the last couple of weeks, we've gotten hundreds of calls on it. It's blown up,' attorney Minc said. 'People are upset. They're getting named. They're getting shamed.'' In 1996, Congress passed legislation protecting websites and apps from liability for things posted by their users. But the users can be sued for spreading 'false and defamatory'' information, Minc said. In May, however, a federal judge in Illinois threw out an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit by a man who'd been criticized by women in the Facebook chat group 'Are We Dating the Same Guy,″ Bloomberg Law reported. State privacy laws could offer another avenue for bringing legal action against someone who posted your photograph or other personal information in a harmful way, Minc said. Advertisement The breach exposed thousands of selfies and photo IDs In its statement, Tea reported that about 72,000 images were leaked online, including 13,000 images of selfies or photo identification that users submitted during account verification. Another 59,000 images that were publicly viewable in the app from posts, comments and direct messages were also accessed, according to the company's statement. No email addresses or phone numbers were exposed, the company said, and the breach only affects users who signed up before February 2024. 'At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that additional user data was affected. Protecting tea users' privacy and data is our highest priority,' Tea said. It said users did not need to change their passwords or delete their accounts. 'All data has been secured.'' Lawyer Minc said he was not surprised to see Tea get targeted. 'These sites get attacked,'' he said. 'They create enemies. They put targets on themselves where people want to go after them.''
San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Tea app was intended to help women date safely. Then it got hacked
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