Essential today are dating sites. And the figures say a lot about the possible scams and all the manipulation subterfuges, with the aim of encroaching on the accounts and profiles of Internet users.
Internet users recently shared a scandalous video where participants simulated what happens on dating sites. By switching from one profile to another with a simple click, while having at your fingertips an almost unlimited database of profiles, seducing and being seduced has become a game. However, dating sites meetings that appeared in the United States in the mid-1990s have spread widely around the world. According to a recent study, more than 323 million people use them.
Tinder, the best known, has just published its statistics in March 2024. It has been downloaded over 450 million times since its creation and currently has 80 million users in over 190 countries. The revenue from this app for the first quarter of 2024 was $440 million.
Tired of loneliness and socially impacted by their singleness, users are abandoning traditional means of meeting and the The use of applications has become almost a “mass practice”. Thus, we can be sure that the explosion in the number of individuals admitting to having carried out research via these platforms does not exclude Tunisians.
Criteria and algorithms
The ancestors of dating applications are the classified ads in newspapers, often well-mocked, where you look for a soul mate by displaying your photo and your interests. According to the same principle, the sites present themselves as intermediaries and highlight the choice of individuals plus that of their algorithms. Hidden behind their nicknames, users join the great sentimental crowd of the Internet, in search of someone. The applications make it appear that they are carrying out an initial sorting, with their questions and their algorithms supposed to recognize soul mates and compatible souls. Through the rise of digital practices, they then mobilize judgments of taste and disgust, which are at the heart of the selection mechanisms to exclude distant profiles and bring together those who appear to come together. This operation, which is quite cruel, can be summed up as reviewing a catalog according to its criteria.
A certain taboo exists
The transformations brought by digital technology in the field of romantic and marital relationships fall well within the framework of major sociological transformations. Online dating has accompanied these developments but they have not revolutionized them.
Dating sites have become commonplace, which explains the media hype orchestrated around the videos published recently. The individuals there are represented as a product that we evaluate, take or throw away when we don’t want it.
It is difficult to know whether these practices are the result of the moral crisis in the strict sense or of pre-existing digitalization trends; it is clear that these sites remain an environment conducive to risks.
Virtual threats are very concrete
Online platforms are supposed to provide a new way of forming an ephemeral or lasting relationship and add to the traditional opportunities to find a partner within one’s circle. The laws of this more direct and rational market where we believe we save time, words, and preambles appear as the lifeline and the ultimate solution. However, the particularities of online dating lead to the perception of an associated risk, potentially greater than for traditional dating. In 2021, a survey revealed that 60% of French women aged 30 to 39 say they have experienced some form of harassment on a dating site or application. In the United States, in 2016, the Federal Trade Commission confirmed having received 11,235 complaints of scams on these platforms. This figure reached 52,593 in 2020. Losses linked to dating site scams in the United States exceeded $300 million in 2020.
In fact, dating sites do not take the time to check the profiles of registrants, which exposes you to the risk of interacting with dishonest, or even downright dangerous, people. The typical example is that of the scammer using a fake profile who manipulates the person to gain their trust over time, until they can ask for money or obtain personal information in order to usurp his identity.
Additionally, communicating in writing is not as natural as communicating verbally. From lies to real non-compatibility with the individuals encountered, the disappointment and disillusionment are all the greater than the expectation and hope attached to this unknown person.
Another important point raised by psychologists is the addiction to these applications which harms concentration, sleep, personal and professional life. Studies have found that some people spend more than 5 cumulative hours per day there.
Apps that appear to be part of a new way of meeting new people are actually a real business. It is best to be vigilant and wary of this virtually connected world which, in reality, is completely disconnected from humans.
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