Lara Jones
Multimedia Editor
Sometimes I feel like Carrie Bradshaw, stylish and witty, but then I realize that she has something that I’m absolutely lacking: The ability to form a decent relationship at the drop of the hat. It’s a dated reference to be sure but that doesn’t mean it lacks truth. She had an innate ability to meet someone and instantly form a connection, but because I am deflective by nature I refuse to blame this shortcoming on myself and instead turn my eyes to another culprit: Dating apps.
After I left the high school bubble there was an strong desire between myself and the people in my life to try to become more adult. We graduated which meant that we had the world at our fingertips and the possibilities of life were endless. Now did we do anything with these possibilities? The answer is no. Instead, in my particular friend group, we had all unanimously decided to get Tinder. Thinking back it was a strange choice rooted in so much desire to be older than we were, but nevertheless, we proceeded with making our profiles and starting our journeys through the world of online dating.
In honesty, it was fun at the start, new and exciting. There was an abundance of people to talk to and my friends and I spent hours picking just the right photos that would match who we were perfectly.
After a while though it all just started to feel hollow. Every conversation was the same; it was all a perpetual roundabout of nothing. I wondered to myself often if everyone felt this way. Perhaps our society stuck on the endless swiping has met its end. Doomed by lack of interest.
I can’t speak of how things used to be and maybe they weren’t all that different. The world of digital relationships is all I’ve ever known but I can’t help but wish things could be as they used to be before a screen was placed in the hands of man.
People used to meet in public, conversations were started and relationships were formed. Nowadays it almost feels like it is expected for someone to find another person only on a dating app. The act of meeting someone in a public place is juvenile and uncommon. This is strange considering that everyone I talk to wishes they didn’t have to resort to an app to find another person, but we are so stuck hiding behind the person we think ourselves to be and how are online persona dictates who we are that is becoming impossible to present ourselves social in a way the archives what we desire.
I wish I could look toward the future and see what awaits us but in all honesty, I don’t know what’s beyond the colored pixels. Maybe it will be worse than where we are now. Will we stay trapped in our bubble of online personas hoping that a special someone will drop in our laps, or are we going to break the cycle of swiping and start trying to do things the old-fashioned way.
In all truth, we can never really go back to how things used to be. All I hope is that things can get better. Let’s denounce the dating app game and start the real game of life.
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