We are in the middle of 2023 and finding a partner is not an easy task. We might think that in a hyper-connected world like the one we live in, looking for someone to share our life with would be easy, because in addition to the classic bars or cooking courses, there is now Instagram (it links around much more than we imagine) and famous dating apps
But that of flirt via Tinder and other applications similar to these is complicated. That free buffet of people who you forget with the slightest gesture of the thumb is far removed from the slow dating that we should practice to fall in love, but it is still a widely used application. So much so that it was surely the first thing they told Aitana and Shakira to get off when they broke up with their partners.
Addiction to dating apps
The use of this type of dating applications can get out of control. In fact, there are experts who say that addictive and abusive consumption habits could appear with the use of these applications. So much so that according to a study by Top Doctors and Dr. Sandra Bravo Herrero, a specialist in Psychiatry at Mentalia Arévalo, 1 in 3 dating app users are addicted to them.
We have more data: 1 in 10 Spaniards use a dating application and 90% admit to having used it during working hours. Some even claim to have “passed Tinder” both swipe.
Why dating apps can be addictive
If we analyze the situation from a psychological point of view and in the words of Iria Reguera, psychologist and editor-in-chief of Trendencias, “it is very possible that someone becomes addicted to these applications due to the intermittent reinforcement.” BF Skinner, one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century, focused his work on conditioning and explained what conditioning consisted of. intermittent reinforcement: giving a reward every certain interval of times a behavior has been performed.
According to the study by psychologists James Olds and Peter Milner, “The Functional Neuroanatomy of Pleasure and Happiness”the uncertainty of whether or not we will get the reward (will it return the matches?) generates more addiction than being guaranteed to receive one.
Now, why are dating apps additive? Let’s say your brain is addicted to rewards and tech designers know it. According to the Top Doctors report, do swipe and matches releases dopamines very similar to those of drugsAnd that creates an addiction.
In addition to intermittent reinforcement, other factors may present that favor dependency, such as the so-called “Choice Paralysis” with which we will think that there can always be a better option and we will postpone decision making by procrastinating.
If we add to all this that it is an application that it is more than possible for us to download when we are single (we give you some tips to get over a break up), and that this is a moment when we may feel more vulnerable, we already have the perfect breeding ground for intermittent reinforcement to fill our egos.
Photos | Pratik Gupta and Good Faces Agency in Unsplash
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