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Big Think is the leading source of expert-driven, actionable, educational content -- with thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, we help you get smarter, faster. Get actionable lessons from the world’s greatest thinkers & doers. Our experts are either disrupting or leading their respective fields. We aim to help you explore the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century, so you can apply them to the questions and challenges in your own life.
Dating apps encourage our worst instincts. Here’s how to be more ethical | Christine Emba
Big Think
10 minutes
6 days ago
Dating apps encourage our worst instincts. Here’s how to be more ethical | Christine Emba
**🔥 Dating Apps Are a Mess (and Kinda Messing *Us* Up Too) 💔📱**
Back in the day, people met through friends, family, work, or school 👨👩👧👦🎓.
Now? It’s swipe-swipe culture. Tinder. Bumble. Hinge. You name it.
Sure, dating apps have helped — especially for people in marginalized communities 🏳️🌈🤝.
But they’ve also brought along some serious issues.
👻 Ghosting? Normalized.
📸 Unwanted photos? Unfortunately, common.
🚨 Harassment? Way too frequent.
🤖 People often act worse when they feel there are no real consequences.
Some stats that say it all:
- 56% of women have received inappropriate images 📲
- 40% were contacted repeatedly after cutting someone off 🚫
- 37% were insulted, 11% even felt physically threatened 😟
- 64% of men felt insecure due to low responses 📉
This isn’t just awkward — it’s exhausting 🧠💤.
Apps turn dating into a *game*.
Swipe left, swipe right — again and again — while getting the message that someone “better” might be a tap away 😮💨.
Why build something real when you can just start over?
And let’s be real:
If your pics aren’t 🔥 or you’re not 6 feet tall, you might never even get seen 🙃.
It’s shallow. It’s discouraging. And for many, it’s just... Draining.
So what can we do?
💡 Treat people like people — not profiles.
🫱🏽🫲🏼 Respect boundaries. Look for real connection.
👀 And maybe... Just maybe... Start a conversation in person.
Dating doesn’t have to feel like a simulation.
Let’s make it human again ❤️🩹.
About Christine Emba:
Christine Emba is an opinion columnist and editor at The Washington Post, where she focuses on ideas, society, and culture. She is also a contributing editor at Comment Magazine and an editor at large at Wisdom of Crowds, which includes a podcast and newsletter. Before this, Emba was the Hilton Kramer Fellow in Criticism at The New Criterion and a deputy editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, focusing on technology and innovation. Her book, Rethinking Sex: A Provocation, is about the failures and potential of the sexual revolution in a post-#MeToo world. Emba was named one of the World’s Top 50 Thinkers by Prospect Magazine in 2022.
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Big Think
Big Think is the leading source of expert-driven, actionable, educational content -- with thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, we help you get smarter, faster. Get actionable lessons from the world’s greatest thinkers & doers. Our experts are either disrupting or leading their respective fields. We aim to help you explore the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century, so you can apply them to the questions and challenges in your own life.
