Every year the number of people looking for love on dating apps and sites increases. According to recent statistics, about 18% of all modern marriages are between people who met online. And this is a really important number.
But are modern dating services as effective as commonly believed? Or is it a complete waste of time?
Today we will try to answer this question and at the same time share some useful tips that will help you make your online dating more effective. We are sure it will be interesting!
Dating app addiction
Addiction it is a condition of irrepressible need for something. From a medical point of view, addiction usually means addiction to, for example, nicotine or alcoholic beverages. However, addiction can manifest itself in different areas. Sometimes we talk about addiction even in online dating.
There are several factors that make online dating addictive:
- Satisfaction effect. When a user scrolls through other people's profiles, he doesn't know which of them he will reciprocate. This creates a feeling of euphoria and excitement, which is reinforced by the production of dopamine, the pleasure hormone. As a result, the same addiction arises: a person wants to get more and more dopamine.
- The FOMO effect (fear of missing out – fear of missing out on something important). The user sees a large number of potential partners in the application and this gives rise to the fear of losing the person right. This forces you to scroll through even more profiles, constantly opening the app on your phone, spending hours and hours on it.
- The “paralysis of choice” effect. This is a specific effect associated with the large number of options for finding and choosing a potential partner. A person's ability to make decisions decreases, he feels depressed and insecure. As a result, he spends more time thinking than acting.
All this tells us that traditional web dating is not as effective as marketers are trying to convince us. And while this doesn't mean you should abandon this format completely, it's still worth reviewing your approach to online dating to get what you want. Therefore, next we will share some alternative approaches to dating!
Meetings in video chats
Sometimes the smartest solution is to radically change your approach to online dating. For example, instead of traditional services like Tinder, Bumble or Hinge, use online video chat - a platform that connects random interlocutors via video.
This format has an extremely important feature: here you can't just sit without taking action for hours. In a video chat, you communicate with someone or simply leave the site. In such applications and sites, there are usually no user profiles to fill out, dozens of search settings, questionnaires of different types and everything that takes away free time. Just communication!
For our part, we can recommend two video chats for you — CooMeet and Holla. These video chats are similar in many aspects, but at the same time they have some important differences. There video chat with girls CooMeet, for example, offers you a flawless gender filter, user-friendly mobile apps, a built-in message translator, a Stories feature, and even an affiliate program. And Holla's online video chat, in turn, with similar functionality, can offer advanced algorithms for selecting interlocutors. We recommend trying both video chats to see which one suits you best.
Finding a partner in niche dating services
As we said above, too many potential partners can actually be a disadvantage. There are too many users on Tinder and in this reality, even with various search filters and intelligent algorithms, it can be very difficult to find the right person which you will be truly interested in.
Niche dating services gather a much smaller audience, but there may indeed be people here who pique your curiosity. After all, these are users with the same interests and principles as you.
Today you can find great niche dating sites and apps for a wide variety of users: vegetarians and vegans, travel lovers, wealthy people, and so on. Almost everyone will find something that suits them and believe me, here you can really increase your chances of successful and promising dates.
Time rationing
One of the reasons you become addicted to online dating is lack of time control. Already during the day you unconsciously open the app every 15-20 minutes and in the evening after school or work you can sit here for hours. However, such obsession does not guarantee you a successful date.
Hence the advice: try not to use dating apps and sites for more than 20-40 minutes a day. Pass more time in real life, communicate with friends and family more often, go out, don't be afraid to talk to someone live. It is possible that you will meet your love in the real world, and not on the Internet.
Of course, if you have already met interesting people you like, you can spend more time with them. However, in this case, do not limit yourself only to SMS, but try to bring communication to a video chat as soon as possible. This will allow you to better understand what kind of person they are, what their goals are, whether it is worth pursuing your acquaintance and whether there is a possibility for you to be together.
How to communicate correctly on the Internet so as not to waste time
The problem with many users of dating services is that they simply approach the issue of finding a partner the wrong way and at the same time expect everything to work out by itself. But is not so. Therefore, we want to give you some other useful tips that can increase your chances.
- Define your goals and expectations from dating
Before you start chatting on a dating app, you need to be clear about what you want to get out of this process. Are you looking for a serious relationship, short-term romance, friendship or just plain fun? What qualities do you appreciate in a partner and what compromises are you willing to make. You'll also want to determine which communication format suits you best: text, voice, or video. For the first acquaintance, you can use any of the options, but we still recommend that you focus on video communication, since there are much more prospects for such dates.
- Be active and proactive
Don't wait for someone to text you or invite you to meet. If you are interested in a person, feel free to write to them yourself. And if you feel ready to take your conversation to the next level, don't be afraid to suggest setting up a video date and chat face to face. This is the only way to get to know a person well enough and prepare for the first face-to-face meeting. Concerning precisely the meeting itself, it is better not to hesitate, because even the most interesting online communication can simply fade away over time. He needs a push, and a real date is capable of giving that push.
And one more thing: who is most likely to develop an addiction to online dating?
In reality, this addiction can arise in any subject, but there are several factors that contribute to it in a particularly strong way:
- Psychological factors. Lack of social communication, stress, anxiety, feelings of loneliness — all of this can lead to addiction very quickly.
- Social factors. If a person has a small social circle and feels uncomfortable in his social environment, he is already at risk and can become addicted to dating applications.
We sincerely hope that this information was useful to you and now you know how to avoid such addictions and not be led by marketers. Online dating is great! They open up truly amazing opportunities for interesting and promising encounters. But all this is justified only if you have the right approach and are really ready to meet a potential partner. We are certain that you will find the person you have always dreamed of. It just takes a little effort!