Online Dating and Its Effects on Mental Health (Essay Sample)

“Recent industry reports show that there are 54 Million single adults currently in the U.S. and 40 Million of them have reportedly tried online dating” ("Latest Stats from BeSocial.com Shows Largest Growth for Casual Dating Online in Younger, Male Demographics."). It is easy to say that online dating has quickly become the outlet for finding love in the 21st century. Swiping right is the most convenient and easy way to find love, and people are addicted to this easy access to dating. “Online dating websites and the mobile apps that have followed have made dating and hookups more convenient than ever” (Pasca). Despite the convenience of online dating apps, there are also extreme negatives concerning the apps, including anxiety and depression, burnout from dating, and forming non-genuine relationships. 

One negative effect that online dating has is its ability to create extreme anxiety and depression in users. Anxiety occurs with online dating apps because there is no way to get to know someone’s true personality from an online profile, just the way people look. When people are only focusing on others’ looks, anxiety can occur from deteriorating self-esteem. Harikrupa Krishnan says, “While using dating apps, you only really look at the pictures. The two- to three-lined bio that accompanies one's profile picture does not give you much information. So basically, if you flip the situation, you are openly getting rejected by someone for the way you look, and it affects your confidence and self- esteem in ways you never thought possible" ("Depression now finds its roots in being rejected on online dating apps"). Online dating apps create anxiety because of the constant judgment people can make based on a picture. This is terrible because people are basing people’s worth on pictures, and that vulnerability can hurt people for long periods of time. Without online dating apps, relationships can be formed without the anxiety of being judged just on looks. Depression is a very serious mental disorder that can affect how people act, feel, and think, and this can all occur using online dating apps. Psychiatrist Dr. Vikram Prabhu says, "Dating apps themselves do not cause depression, rather it is the individual's level of vulnerability that causes depression. The anxiety that people feel because of these dating apps can lead to depression" ("Depression now finds its roots in being rejected on online dating apps"). Online dating apps are used to find relationships, and people have expectations of finding them, but people are let down when they are not able to find a match. Individuals cope differently with how these online dating apps make them feel, but there are some people who are truly affected by these apps in terrible ways. The anxiety caused by these apps that also can lead to depression is one reason online dating apps should be removed. 

The next negative effect of online dating apps is burnout from the apps and dating in general. Dating apps have the convenience of endless swiping to find matches, and with those matches, dates occur. After the cycle of date after date, it is easy to experience burnout from dating and the apps. Burnout occurs when there are excessive and long periods of emotional, physical, and mental stress. Hanna Balanos, a user of online dating apps, shares her experience. “Last fall, I downloaded a dating app. I swiped through an endless sea of faces and went on six first dates in 10 days. It was exhausting, so I deleted the app. A couple weeks later, I re-downloaded it, swiped, and the cycle repeated. In addition to my job and social life, using a dating app felt like more work after work” ("Dating App Burnout: When Swiping Becomes A Chore”). The constant exhaustion from using dating apps is preventing people from finding a relationship. The point of online dating apps is for people to find a connection, and instead, these apps are creating an unwanted pleasure of finding a relationship. Based on the exhaustion of this endless cycle, online dating apps should come to an end. In addition to the thoughts of Hanna Balanos, statistics prove this point further. A study conducted by Single Reports reveals, “Nearly four out of five adults aged 18-54 experienced some degree of emotional fatigue or burnout from online dating (78.37%)” ("Four Out of Five Adults Experience Emotional Fatigue or Burnout From Online Dating (78.37”). This study shows how apps are creating burnout and more fatigue in addition to day-to-day exhaustion. These statistics and Hanna Blanos’ story demonstrate that online dating apps generally do not work in finding relationships, just dates that result in burnout. This study is just another factor why online dating apps are harmful to people's health and should be deleted permanently. 

The last reason why online dating apps should not be allowed is that the apps can lead to fake, superficial relationships. When you meet and connect with a person online, it is often difficult to determine what is true or not. Lies told between people on dating apps is very common and completely defeats the purpose of finding true authentic relationships. The co-founder of OkCupid, an online dating app states, “We looked at income and found that people statistically add about $20,000 to their yearly income when they're kind of putting it out there” ("Little White Lies Of Online Dating Revealed”). Though this lie does not seem that significant, lies like these can make a huge difference in the real world and can just be the start of what is to come throughout the relationship. Since online dating apps make lying very convenient, there is no way to completely determine if the person you are spending the time talking to and forming a connection with is genuine. This furthermore proves that it is difficult to connect fully and form a relationship with someone using online dating apps, so online dating apps should be put to an end. Along with lies, since there are no true one-on-one, face-to-face conversations initially, just conversations behind a screen, it is difficult for true relationships to form. “When we meet people online, we are only interacting with the virtual aliases of one another. This removes the core humanistic aspects of forming relationships.” ("Finding love in real is better than using dating apps"). Relationships are best formed when people understand each other and establish a deeper emotional connection. Online dating apps take out emotional connections, and people are instead masked behind phones. Different attributes make up a person and it is hard to determine what is truly on the inside of a person just by texting. The difficulty in forming a true emotional connection and relationship is because it is easy to hide one's true self behind phones is the last reason why people should get rid of online dating apps.

Though there are lots of negatives to online dating, these apps do have the ability to form true relationships once in a while. According to a study done on marital couples, “The rate of marital breakups for respondents who met their spouse online was 25 percent lower than for those who met offline” ("Cupid's arrow finds its mark with a little online help”). While these statistics seem promising, the effects of online dating can be harmful. These statistics also do not prove that relationships using dating apps are more special than relationships met in person. Other factors can occur in relationships causing breakups, not the way people find each other. These statistics also do not prove that online dating is better and do not clarify why people ended their marriages. Therefore, online dating apps should not be used by anyone. 

Today convenience is very important to individuals and online dating apps are the fastest way to find people, but these dating apps have extremely negative effects on people, such as anxiety, depression, exhaustion, and the inability to determine if you are finding true connections. All these negatives show up because dating apps affect a person mentally, emotionally, and physically. If these apps have this much power, there is no reason to allow them to continue damaging people. Online dating apps are used by millions of people daily without a thought and that is not subject to change, but these outcomes of dating apps are extremely serious and are detrimental to millions of people a day as well. In the end, is there really a benefit of online dating?