Dating can be a particularly difficult thing to navigate and manage while in college. In a world where everyone's faces are completely glued to their phones, many college students have to resort to online dating via apps like Tinder in order to meet other people. While there are certainly a number of positives that can come from being on these apps, the sad truth is that more often times than not, the negatives tend to outweigh them.
One of the main problems that college students like myself run into is the fact that the people you meet on these apps simply do not know how to communicate like normal human beings. I would say that 90 percent of the people I talk to on these apps respond with either one or two word responses, leaving no room for further conversation. I can never seem to wrap my head around why someone would even bother messaging me in the first place if they can't carry a conversation with at least some substance.
Another problem with these apps is that because all of the interaction takes places through text, it leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation and misreading of what you or the other person says. While this is obviously still a problem even when texting your friends, this can definitely be a challenge when you are trying to get to know someone else. You always hate when that one text that was meant to be funny ends up being taken the completely wrong way.
Something else that is especially annoying when it comes to dating apps is encountering people who are shallow and just plain rude in their profiles. For example, a quick scroll through Grindr, an app designed for gay men, will show you a multitude of unimpressive bare torsos with a profile description like "Discreet white, masc, muscular guy looking for other hot, masc, muscular guys" or "Straight-acting and muscular only; no fems" ("masc" meaning masculine and "fem" meaning feminine). This is particularly disconcerting to see because of the fact that these guys are completely excluding certain types of people and have no shame in doing so.
One of the biggest problems that everyone experiences is people being just downright creepy. This includes anything like unsolicited nude photos, terrible pickup lines or uncomfortable dirty talk. It can be such a letdown when you first see or match with someone who looks like they'd be such a catch. They don't seem to get that there are people out there who are actually looking to have normal conversations like normal people.
Lastly, the biggest problem that I find to be with these apps is that much, if not all, of your interactions with people online are based solely on looks and superficiality. You simply don't get the same gratification or end result that you would get if you were meeting someone in person. The connection you make with someone on an app (if you're even lucky to make one) is vastly different from one that you would make in person.
