Do dating apps promote healthy relationships?

While online dating may not be for everyone, it could be a useful resource for developing healthy relationships and establishing connections with new people when used in a conscious way. Dating app companies report on successful adoption of virtual dating. OkCupid found that 31 percent of users liked participating in virtual activities, 25 percent preferred video chat rather than meeting in person and 15 percent wanted to watch a movie or TV together online. This further highlights that dating apps are an ideal platform to promote positive sexual health among those who have multiple sexual partners over time when using dating apps.

Therefore, this study aims to explore motivations, relationships with dating apps, unintended consequences and factors associated with change in sexual behavior in users of dating apps at an Australian music festival. Some 62% of online daters believe that relationships where people first met through a dating site or app are just as successful as those that started in person, compared to 52% of those who never dated online The main difference is a significantly larger proportion than choose to use dating apps at festivals to make friends (41.4% compared to 16.2%) and a lower proportion for casual dating (14.5% compared to 42.8%) but a higher proportion using the app for casual sex (45.1% vs. The low rates of condom use with new sexual dating app partners have sexual health implications among this group of young dating app users, as notably 8.6% reported contraction of STIs and 2.8% reported unwanted pregnancies. Americans who have never used a dating site or app are particularly skeptical about the safety of online dating.

Model 1 included sociodemographics only; model 2 included model 1 in addition to dating app length and contracting an STI with a dating app partner. Apps like Grindr, Lex, Bumble, HER and Coffee Meets Bagel hosted online events such as concerts, speed dating and dating advice sessions. Elizabeth Timmermans, a Belgium-based researcher and author of Love in the Age of Tinder explains that online dating dates back to the 90s and the rise of the Internet. About half of adults who have never used a date or an app (52%) believe that these platforms are not too safe or not at all safe way to meet other people, compared to 29% of those who have dated online.

That makes online dating the most common way American couples meet now, even before social distancing-related spikes occurred in dating-app registrations. While 51.1% of participants had not met any sexual partners through dating apps, 29.0% had met more than half of their sexual partners through dating apps. The same concept can apply to dating apps, says Helen Fisher, biological anthropologist and senior scientific advisor to dating site Match. Online dating users are more likely to describe their overall experience with using dating sites or apps in positive, rather than negative, terms.

Martha Harlowe
Martha Harlowe

Typical social media maven. Amateur bacon ninja. Extreme food trailblazer. Extreme bacon geek. Extreme social media evangelist.