Gay dating apps for under 18s
“Even if I know I’m not going to be attracted to them, I want them to be attracted to me.”
“When you have a bad Tinder date, you go on a rampage for some sort of validation, and it’s really sad,” explains Iona. Now 23, she still uses the app regularly, but has found her self-confidence deteriorating as a result. Iona* was 21 when she turned to Tinder after a bad break up left her feeling isolated and rejected. A photograph being liked is unlikely to resolve someone’s low self-image, and so the user returns to the app to obtain further temporary relief.” “The dopamine system can bring about a sedated, dissociated state, which is attractive for people experiencing challenging feelings. “From a social perspective users who suffer from low self-image can be particularly susceptible to the addictive qualities of dating apps,” explains Dunne. Statistics released by Tinder show that the average user logs in to the app 11 times a day, and spends as long as 77 minutes pursuing this ‘hit’. Instead, another profile is automatically loaded, making the app become addictive. But the apps’ “endless scroll system” means that the next reward never comes. Denise Dunne, a Harley Street psychotherapist who specialises in men’s mental health, warns that this game-like design creates “a culture of disposability” that encourages “narcissistic and pathological behaviours” among users, such as ‘ghosting’ and detachment.Īccording to Dunne, receiving a match activates the “dopamine seeking-reward system”, encouraging the user to keep swiping to get the same hit. The user creates a profile and sets a radius distance before the app presents them with potential ‘matches’ that they can ‘swipe’ yes or no to. The three most popular dating apps, Tinder, Grindr and Bumble, are built on the same premise. A further 45 per cent admitted to using a dating app before they were 21. A sizeable 45 per cent of 16-34 year olds surveyed by YouGov have used a dating app at some point. These figures demonstrate a worrying trend in light of how prevalent dating app usage is among young people. Tinder, which has an estimated 57 million users around the world, ranked in ninth place for causing feelings of “unhappiness and inadequacy.” Grindr topped the list, with 77 per cent of users admitting they felt regret after using it. In 2018, non-profit organization Time Well Spent, which focuses on the digital attention crisis, surveyed 200,000 iPhone users to find out which apps made people feel most unhappy.
#Gay dating apps for under 18s download#
At the end of the night I always delete it, but within a few days I download it again, just for the sake of getting a match,” he says, fighting back a solitary tear. “Sometimes I go home just to go on Grindr. At his peak usage, he was racking up to three dates a day, and estimates he’s been on around 600 dates from apps over the course of four years. While he describes his first year of using the app as “a sort of social sanctuary”, things soon turned dark.
Sam, who came out as gay seven years ago, signed up to the dating app when he moved to London as a way to meet new people. Four hours have passed and I’m stood at the back of the club swiping when I’m supposed to be having a good time with my friends,” says Sam. He is on Grindr, the most popular dating app used by Gay men, looking for a ‘match’ who he can end the night with. He isn’t texting a lost friend in the smoking area, nor is he booking an Uber to take him home. He takes out his phone and begins to move his thumb in the repetitive sideways motion that has become almost second nature to him. It’s a familiar Saturday night routine for the twenty-four year old style assistant from Walthamstow. The music is loud and the walls are sweaty. It’s three in the morning and Sam* is partying with some friends in an east London warehouse. Alice Hall explores a hidden world where users become hooked in a cycle of addiction and despair. More and more people are turning to apps such as Tinder to meet future partners.