It appears that online dating has entered a new phase: dating apps available on smart phones are now more popular than actually visiting the online dating website. You can read about the study here.
The study mentions that people now spend more time on dating apps than on the actual website. Further, the propensity for smartphone owners to sign up for online dating is higher than regular internet users.
The changes in online dating behavior reflect the nature of online communication. People are migrating towards using their smart phones as their main link to the internet.
The move toward mobile dating technology is both good and bad. One one hand, mobile access to online dating has given more people a reason to sign up. The more people that are out there in the dating pool, the more opportunity that you have to meet the right person.
On the other hand, mobile access makes online dating that much more ADD and superficial. Think about it, when using your iPhone to look at profiles of potential dating matches, your cursory review of a person’s profile is only going to become that much quicker. In an age when online dating is already based on a few very superficial characteristics, mobile app dating makes this trend even worse.
The task ahead for online dating platforms (particularly for Christian dating) will be to develop mobile dating apps that encourage high quality interactions between people. We welcome the trend toward more people joining the online dating world. We just hope that we can encourage the good aspects of online dating and de-emphasize the bad.
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