I’ll be candid here. I hate the dating app. I hate myself when I use the dating app. I hate the cutesy little prompts, I hate MARKETING myself. I hate the people on the dating apps, and I hate myself even more for hating these people, because they’re probably good people just looking for connection just like me. “Just like me.” How disgusting. Just acknowledging that right there fills me up with this acid reflux bile that I can’t shake. The dating app is inherently antisocial. I don’t care that it’s the norm now, that doesn’t magically make it prosocial. You know what else is a norm right now? Mass insemination of cattle via automated semen guns shooting frozen seed into these poor cows that have never seen the light of day, that can’t begin to fathom the complex constructed around shooting frozen seed into their cow uteruses so they can give birth to calves that they will never nurse. Taking those calves & chaining them to the ground from the moment they’re born so their meat is tender when they are turned into veal. 20 years ago the idea of meeting people on the internet was rightfully scorned as the pursuit of perverts & malcontents. The ”match” system, trying to offload the pain of rejection to this incredibly diffuse open market where you only get feedback if it’s positive. It’s all so cowardly. Christ, theyre selling us an analgesic for our cowardice. And I don’t know, I think if you’re going to pursue someone, really go after them, you have to abandon your pride, your shame, and the things that turn you yellow. Yeah yeah you start talking and dating and then eventually you have to do the actually important and courageous thing and open yourself up to someone else or whatever. Don’t care, the set-up bothers me on a spiritual level. So anyway, I just got back on the apps this week. I really think it’s gonna go down different this time.
Feb 27, 2025

Comments (10)

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this was beautiful. pure, raw honesty 🙌🙌
Feb 27, 2025
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choc_orange im glad you liked it, thank you
Feb 27, 2025
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God LOL. You really have a way with words. Good luck soldier 🫡
Feb 27, 2025
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taterhole as always, thank you doc. i always know that if nobody got me taterhole got me fr
Feb 27, 2025
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steelyfan1998 period
Feb 27, 2025
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I am one of those people who shows up on the apps every few weeks and my profile says “new here” because I’ve just deleted my account and reappeared. It’s so embarrassing and terrible. But I have such a hard time meeting people. I’ve talked to my therapist about the apps and honestly I think she still finds them useful for me. The problem is I too hate the apps and really hate how I am when I use them. It’s so discouraging. And I’ll match with people, envision my life with them (this is a bad thing obviously, I need to work on this) but then I get ghosted and devastated and existential. Then I delete and the cycle starts all over again. It’s so so awful.
Feb 27, 2025
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valoorie that's terrible. i really think the apps are a psychoweapon to terrorize the sensitive in disposition.
Feb 27, 2025
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steelyfan1998 incredibly well put, I agree 100% !!!!
Feb 27, 2025
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Bro why do u like get me. I feel kind of sick inside every time I get them, see the same people on there every time, I feel myself being pulled further and further from myself with every interaction I have the performance grows deeper. and yet every couple months I’m like hmmmm but what if??? I think the balls of approaching someone with the intention that you want to take them out or pursue any kind of anything with them evade me, even though i find It extremely attractive. You’re a great writer I feel like that response could be on its own a great opinion piece on online dating
Feb 27, 2025
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emmmmuh you're very kind, thank you for saying that. i think those balls evade all of us naturally. if they came easy, they wouldn't be balls.
Feb 27, 2025

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Everyone disappoints me in ways unimaginable. I’m honestly aghast and disturbed by the men I have encountered on these godforsaken apps. And the worst part of it all is that now I’m spiraling about the concept of true love, family, and motherhood. What a wonderful way to end my work week. The moral of the story is listen to what everyone tells you: just stop using the apps. It’s never going to work.
Feb 14, 2025
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I linked a rec I made over a year ago about deleting hinge and dating the old fashioned way. have I been on a single date since then? nope. do I stand by what I said? absolutely. I’m still convinced that the apps aren’t perfect, and while they might work for some people they’re kind of a necessary evil at best. without them, it’s hard to put yourself in contexts where meeting someone organically is possible. and even then, within those contexts the meeting has to be just that: organic. it takes time. it takes being in places/situations regularly where you think you’ll meet people who share your interests/values. it also takes a bit of effort to initiate those interactions, and also fate that someone might initiate something with you. the apps are a convenient, quick fix, instant gratification solution to the issue in that they will get you dates, but in exchange for quantity you may sacrifice on quality. things of quality have no fear of time, though. waiting to encounter someone who is a good fit and in a good phase of life to be what you need and vice versa is going to take time. and if you work a 9-5 like I do, you’re going to have to invest in putting yourself in situations to meet people in your free time. or just do what I do and develop crushes on your superiors in the workplace that are doomed to never be realized because of HR protocol. i’d advise against the latter, though.
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2020 article analyzing the UX, ethics, and psychology of The Apps™️. Sharlene Gandhi of AOGA Eye on Design meditates upon the troubling amount of data these apps collect on us and how said data is being used, unconscious biases and algorithmic designs that influence how we use The Apps ™️, and the rise of the "Responsible Dating App." The idea that jumped out to me in this article was the music based data app. The app matches you based on your Spotify and Apple Music listening history because, as the founder of the app Mohil Sheth states, there's a problem with people lying on their profiles but it's hard to fake music data because "you wouldn't listen to songs you don't like." This article made me wonder if the best thing to do is to get off The Apps ™️ all together--I've personally only used Bumble for about 5 hours and then swiftly deleted it--because of the facade of interaction they provide. they make you THINK that you meeting all these people and having all these great conversations and improving your dating life when in reality you aren't putting yourself out there and developing social skills. but at the same time, I understand why people use them; rejection is easier to take from behind a screen, you have the perception of more opportunity for connection, and you can highly curate your appearance. It also made me wonder if it's even possible to have a "Responsible Dating App"...to me the term feels contradictory.
Mar 3, 2024

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sometimes you just need to read some real shit straight from the realest person you know .
Feb 24, 2025
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This is a confession post, not a recommendation, not even much of an anti-recommendation. Tbh it reads like a humilation ritual. Honestly just keep scrolling; it's not worth reading. I'm just posting it because I think I had a point when I first started writing this, one which I lost pretty wuickly. But I spent a good couple of minutes typing this all out, so I'll post it anyway. Thank God I'm anon. If you do read it, please forgive me. My friend Tyler brought a joint to the super bowl party last night. He handed it to me & told me about how it had weed diamonds in it while I smoked, he told me that it was some good shit and that I wouldn't have to smoke so much of it since I've got such a low tolerance & all, but I could also smoke as much as I liked, seeing as he had a bunch more & that it was the super bowl & we had a bunch of wings on the way anyway, so might as well smoke some more weed so you know what? yeah, i smoked some more weed since what's the harm anyway it's just weed after all. I've been a mess all day. I've been slow & stupid & disgustingly horny since I woke up this morning; but really honestly since I smoked the weed. If you're one of those types that "actually becomes more functional when you're smoking weed" & that I should "just let people enjoy things" I don't know what to say to you. I'm going to be weird for 4 weeks now and it's all my fault. This happens every time. Even when it doesn't turn me into a non-verbal paranoiac nutcase, even when it's enjoyable to me in that moment-- I become something lower than a beast. I stand over the platter of chicken wings & gorge until I am sick and then I gorge even more. My stomach becomes distended & my face and fingers are covered in thai curry buffalo chicken fat goo. I waddle around & fart & I find this very funny. I confuse the sound of my own voice with that of my younger sisters & this is incredibly disqueting to me. Do I really sound like that? I become a big confused overgrown fat baby. I'm going to be be weird for four weeks now. Slow. I was supposed to meet up with my friends to watch Luka's debut for the Lakers. I'm stitting at my desk typing this up; procrastinating going to the gym (which I can NOT neglect [especially after my evening of spiritual obesity]) & the game starts in 5 minutes. Stupid. Typing out this confession right now is painfully difficult. Every word that I type has the appearance of a whitehead that can't be popped to me. This textbox full of blemishes so infuriatingly, stubbornly, immutably DISGUSTING. I feel sick just reading back what I'm writing here. Once again, if you've made it this far, forgive me. This is a confession, not a recommendation. Disgustingly horny. This one I won't elaborate on. Forgive me. It's not because I smoked weed. The smoking of the weed was just the first movement in a sequence that had already begun before I'd even accepted the joint from Tyler. My own spiritual weakness is the mantle upon which all of these failings hang. I'm not this way because I smoked weed, I'm this way because I'm the type of guy that smokes weed even though I know what it will do to me. There are 999,999,999 other weeds in my life that I am all too willing to permit myself. I haven't eaten anything but bread & butter all day. The lakers game is starting soon. Off to the gym I go.
Feb 11, 2025