Student Research Guide WQ24/ Online Dating Apps

    Online Dating Apps 

 This is a student created research guide for English 102 & Library 201 Learning community

• This guide will address social and mental health issues associated with dating apps. 
• The purpose of this guide is to explore different dating apps and websites. 
• This guide will discuss the evolution of online dating throughout history. 
• This guide presents a view of negative and positives that comes with it. 

Focused thesis: Despite the popularity of these applications, online dating apps create more mental health struggles than romantic partnerships. 

The research questions addresses in this guide are: 

• How does online dating affect peoples mental health? 
• What are the statistics of people end up finding their forever partner? 
• What are the age ranges of people that participate in online dating? 

Lately, there has been a significant rise of people signing up for online dating platforms. While users are gaining access to many apps, there has also been a well documented increase of mental health issues. The age variety of users ranges from those 18 years of age all the way to those in later stages of life. This means that younger people are even experiencing anxiety and depression. This research paper presents detailed information about how dating applications work and how we can shed awareness of mental health in connection to the use of dating apps. The methodology used was a wide spread of sources from multiple areas which include; Pew Research Center, Statista Research Department, Skagit Valley College Databases, Google Scholar and more. In the research paper I have over 15 sources annotated. The results of the concluding research paper shows an overall analysis of what and how the mental health of users are affected by the use of online dating applications. Some general trends throughout my research indicated that many different age groups experienced mental health issues while participating in online dating. While studying about how online dating affects people's mental health, it’s noted that the applications are getting more and more popular. Also, there are more mental health related symptoms that people could be feeling, not just that of anxiety and depression but cyberbullying. Implications for further research should be that society should have more of an understanding about these platforms and how it may affect a users overall mental health.

Online dating has grown popular at an exponential rate throughout the recent years. Oxford Languages defines 'internet dating' as "The use of services available on the internet to find romantic or sexual partners; frequently attributive, as Internet dating service, Internet... " (Online dating). According to A Brief History of Online Dating, "In 1965 its Operation Match really started to take the blindness out of a blind date" (Bloomberg). There are countless platforms out there available at your fingertips. Some include; Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Eharmony, Christian Mingle, etc. In a study, Huang, et al, states that “The use of dating apps has rapidly increased in the past 10 years. In 2022, there were more than 366 million online dating service users. About 30% of adults in the United States (U.S.) have ever used online dating apps” (Huang et al). Trying to find your significant other in life over the internet, can also increase your levels of depression and or anxiety. Despite the popularity of these applications, online dating apps create more mental health struggles than romantic partnerships.

The Science of Online Dating- Ted Talk 

1. This video shows how the online dating world is looking like currently. 
2. This video addresses how each individuals personalities differ from over the phone as compared to in person. 
3. This video provides information on psychological matchmaking algorithms. 
4. This video is important because it describes the online dating world while people are trying to find their forever partner. 

Video Title and Summary: 

'The Science of Online Dating', by Bella Glanville. The TedTalk is a short video that talks about online dating in today's time and its psychological studies that have been experimented. 

Video Source Citation:

Glanville, Bella. “The Science of Online Dating.” Bella Glanville: The Science of Online Dating | TED Talk, www.ted.com/talks/bella_glanville_the_science_of_online_dating. Accessed 23 Feb. 2024.