Dating apps don’t destroy love

Couple who met through the digital tools tended to be more satisfied in their relationship

Geneva: Contrary to earlier concerns, a novel has shown that people who met their partners on dating applications have often stronger long-term relationship goals and that these new ways of meeting people encourage socio-educational and geographical mixing.

Mobile apps have revolutionised the way people meet in Switzerland and elsewhere in recent years. The findings of a recent study indicate that app-formed couples have stronger cohabitation intentions than couples who meet in a non-digital environment.

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Unlike traditional dating sites, these apps do not feature detailed user profiles but are largely based on rating photos using a swipe review system. As dating apps escalated in popularity, so has criticism about them encouraging casual dating only, threatening the existence of long-term commitment, and possibly damaging the quality of intimacy.

A study by the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, provides a wealth of information about couples who met through dating apps, drawing on data from a 2018 Swiss survey.

What is more, women who found their partner through a dating app have stronger desires and intentions to have children than those who found their partner offline.

Despite fears concerning deterioration in the quality of relationships, partners who met on dating apps express the same level of satisfaction about their relationship as others.

Last but not least, the study shows that these apps play an important role in modifying the composition of couples by allowing for more educationally diverse and geographically distant couples.

“The internet is profoundly transforming the dynamics of how people meet,” confirms Gina Potarca, a researcher at the Institute of Demography and Socioeconomics in UNIGE’s Faculty of Social Sciences. Dating apps encourage mixing of different levels of education, especially between high-educated women and lower educated men.