Has Love Grown as Dating Apps Flourish?
Tinder, a mobile dating app that allows users to match with each other based solely on mutual physical attraction, has been called “shallow,” the “dating apocalypse” and “a cave habitat for garbage males.” But since it exploded on the dating scene, the number of mobile dating apps on the market has shot up, and the number of 18- to 24-year-old Americans who use them has increased fourfold since 2013. With all the new options, have the services become more sophisticated at pairing like-minded individuals? Do the apps work?
* flourish = 번창하다/ match with ~ = ~와 짝을 맞추다, 어울리는 것을 찾다/ mutual = 상호간의/ physical attraction = 신체적 매력/ shallow = 얄팍한, 피상적인, 얕은/ apocalypse = (세계의) 파멸, 종말/ habitat = 서식지/ explode = 폭발적으로 증가하다/ shoot up = 급속히 자라다/ fourfold = 4배로[의]/ pair = (둘씩) 짝을 짓다/ like-minded = 생각[뜻]이 비슷한, 한마음의
온라인 데이트 (앱)가 효과가 있나요?
1. Technology Made My Dating Life More Old School
Apps can actually facilitate a pretty traditional dating culture: Every first real-world interaction is blind, a mutual leap of faith and humility.
2. Dating Apps Don’t Work for Me
Online it's all still life. And that doesn't help me come out of my shell.
3. Streamline the Process with Artificial Intelligence
There’s so much supply that millennials can't seem to organize the sensory overload — or know when to walk away from it.
4. Diverse Platforms Cater to Different Needs
For millennial Muslims, the key was creating a platform that could be used differently based on each individual's comfort level and belief.
Sample Essay
Diverse Platforms Cater to Different Needs
Dating apps, depending on how they are built, can shape different kinds of interactions and expectations. Bumble, an app that uses the “swipe right” method for matching pairs, for example, watermarks any image that is sent through the platform with the name and profile picture of the sender — discouraging uninvited lewdness.
Other subtle technological additions in the multitude of dating apps cater specifically to religion, ethnicity and societal custom. For millennial Muslims, the key was creating a platform for a sprawling community with hybrid identities, that could be used in different capacities (for friendship or love), depending on each person's comfort level and belief.
Ishqr was born out of a question: How would a Muslim hipster find a like-minded partner — a proud American and practicing Muslim, who is open-minded, politically active, intellectually aware and community-focused — without knowing where to look?
Love, dating and relationships in the modern world are hard, but they can be especially confusing for young Muslim-Americans.
To keep the pressure off and the tone light, users can join the site without explaining themselves. They can literally check the box that says they’re “not sure” why they’re there. Photos are completely optional and, even then, are not available until two people have matched based on their written profiles.
Many users ask advice through the platform, either of the team (which includes a Muslim-American therapist) or each other — questions about how to talk to the opposite sex, when to take a conversation off the platform, and how to navigate relationships safely and respectfully, especially in light of the stigma that dating still carries in the Muslim community.
Love is complicated, but platforms like Ishqr allow Muslim-Americans to approach it on their own terms.
