I fortunately found a life partner before dating apps took the foothold they have now, but from speaking with younger relatives and friends, I think virtually all of them (at least the male ones) could only dream of ever even being able to use something like this. It seems to me the far more common experience is for, at any given time, their number of active prospects through those apps to be on the order of 0. Or are all my friends/family just ugly?
No. They're all probably pretty good looking. The problem with the apps is the selection bias exhibited by males and females. If you look at the selection stats for men, you'll see they swipe right for about 80% of women. If you look at the selection stats for women, you'll see they swipe right for about 0.5% of men.
I've no idea why this is the case, but the results have held out over a number releases both private and public.
