Social Media and Swiping Right: The Death of Dating
This is nothing like 10 Things I Hate About You…
by ELENA FLISZARY ★ OCTOBER 5, 2022
We all grew up thinking that we would one day have our own teenage love story that we’ve read in books and seen in movies. Now we’re here as teenagers, begging for the bare minimum (can I really not even get a text back?). As the hours turned to days of me waiting in front of my phone, I had to sit back and think, when did the romance of dating die? The answer: social media and our generation’s excessive use of it.
Social media makes life easy. It sounds great at first, but when it comes to love, it sucks. We went from asking for phone numbers to asking for someone’s Snapchat. I mean, why take a girl out on a date when you can just snap her? With Snapchat, boys can literally just send a picture of their face, and girls count that as conversation and “effort”. No babe, real effort is him making plans to see you and asking about your day. But boys are just not trying like they used to anymore. They’ve gone from giving you flowers to asking for nudes. Using Snapchat as a main form of communication just leaves more room for you to get hurt. After being left on delivered, we’ve all had the temptation to track his snap score or check his snap maps. Yet, once we check, an immediate pit in our stomach is formed. We are relying too heavily on Snapchat and other forms of social media to tell us how he feels, if he's ignoring us, or god forbid, if we’re getting ghosted.
Social media also introduced “hookup culture”. Let me start by saying, there's absolutely nothing wrong with just wanting to hook up if that's all you’re looking for. If two people want to hook up without the strings attached, by all means, do so. The difference is, now, it appears that’s the only thing any guy is interested in. They send you a “wyd?” at 1 am on a Friday, and the next thing you know, you’re in their bed. But if you’re looking for something more, it's hard to get out of that cycle. With social media’s lack of effort, it seems the most you’re going to get is the “wyd”. The hard truth is that he’s not going to date you no matter how many times you go over in the middle of the night. But what happened to making meaningful connections or getting to know someone? At a certain point, hooking up with no meaning and no feelings just gets boring and repetitive.
Finally, our generation has completely swiped left on the whole idea of traditional dating. With dating moving online, it's even harder to find a real connection. Nine out of ten times, any guy you find online is just looking to hook up. It's impossible to tell what someone’s personality and true intentions are from a couple of pictures and a bio that says “6’3 if that matters”. Between social media and online dating, our generation has become way too focused on looks and making that the end all or be all on swiping left or right. The tinder conversations then move to “what's your snap?” and once again, we’re stuck in the same online cycle.
Social media has clouded our judgment on how women should be treated and how much effort should be put in. If the most effort he’s giving is liking your Instagram story, there’s no reason to bend over backwards for him. You deserve more. If he’s still asking for your Snapchat in his 20s, run. So next time, if you want a real shot… ask for my number Brad.