Why I Moved Off Dating Apps

I used Tinder for a little bit more than 2 years and Badoo for a few months. Even though it gave me the opportunity to meet cool girls during my travels, I recently decided to quit dating apps entirely.

I have several reasons for this drastic move.

First, quality photos are to dating apps what water is to humans: everything. No matter how good your bio is, photos take the main stage. Problem: it’s incredibly hard to take good photos. Humans are visual animals, but if you’re like me and you hate taking pictures of yourself or aren’t very photogenic, you won’t make the best of the platform. This fact alone is enough to create doubts about the usefulness of dating apps. It feels fake and superficial.

More importantly, dating apps are time-consuming. People usually sign up because they don’t have time to go out or lack social skills. If the process is formalized and you can go through it from the comfort of your couch, it’s a much more efficient approach, right? Wrong. Catfishes, prostitutes, crappy profiles, and dumb algorithms get in the way. 10 minutes a day of swapping and messaging turns into hours. If you’re looking for a long-term relationship, you probably underestimate the time you’ll need to find the right persons to pick.

The best dates I had happened when I was not proactively looking for anything. I feel like the best way to find potential partners is to simply stop caring about dating. Instead, we should concentrate on meeting new people, being a good friend, involving ourselves in communities, doing new things, traveling, having fun, and working on ourselves.

When people tell me they don’t have time to meet new people, I am reminded of a friend of mine called Amine. Amine can go in the street, chat up some girls, and meet their entire group of friends overnight. He is THAT good. He just radiates charisma, takes care of his appearance, has a cheerful attitude, and his social skills do the rest. I know, because I tagged along with him last Summer and was amazed at how random it was. One minute we are eating some noodle soups in the streets, and the next one he brings me to a table full of strangers to have a beer and get some contacts. Good time!

Next time you think about swiping left on your phone for ten minutes, try instead crafting a tweet, posting a picture on Instagram, or chatting up some tourists in the street.