How Dating Apps are Changing Love: A Literature Review

This literature review delves into the changing dimension of love after the introduction of dating apps. It explores how dating apps like Tinder have revolutionized the way people find love and meet their romantic desires. The review also discusses the impact of dating apps on different age groups and their interactions. It highlights the benefits and concerns associated with online dating apps and their role in satisfying individual needs and desires. The review concludes with an analysis of the theories of liquid love and confluent love in the context of dating apps.

Literature review
How dating apps are changing love

Table of Contents
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................3
3. The Current Study........................................................................................................................5
3. Who is using the dating apps?............................................................................................5
3.1 Why they are using dating apps?......................................................................................7
3.2 How different groups are interacting trough dating apps.................................................8
3.2.1 Young adults..................................................................................................................9
3.2.2 Mid-life re-partnering..................................................................................................10
3.2.3 LGBQ+........................................................................................................................10
Discussion and Conclusion............................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is aimed at understanding the research topic in depth so that to carry out
research in appropriate manner. By conducting Literature review requisite information can be
find out in which the researcher may acquire required output out of research. This report is
conducted in order to analyse changing dimension of love after introduction of dating apps. The
literature review for the given study is elaborated as under:
As after changing time dating culture is also changing and introducing several new trends
so that to provide notion of love and to meet romantic desires of individual. Dating apps like
Tinder is using advanced technology so that to precisely understand needs of their users and
providing them appropriate match according to their needs. According to Chin, Edelstein, and
Vernon (2019), In traditional time using love letters feeling of love used to be expressed which
has been changed to instant messages and in current time audio and video has taken place of the
same. Even though people are able to find their perfect match via their family and friends or any
known party but at the same time usage of social groups is high as this is a trending measure and
helpful for individual to acquire their needs and demands as well. As in result trend of online
apps are increasing with popularity in order to give appropriate benefits to individual in
significant manner. People prefer online dating apps in current time as they feel more comfort
and can connect with mass audience and decide their loved ones according to their preferences.
Online dating apps are streamlining processes in which long profiles are matching in order to get
associated with detailed matching (Alba, (2021) (Chisom, (2021).
Online dating apps are totally focused on physical attraction and physical appearance due
to which this is creating doubts in minds of users that they will find true love or not. For some
people dating apps are made for developing hook-ups so users do not prefer to use the same.
These online dating apps are satisfying various motives of individual in which they can acquire
short or long term personal goals. According to Vernon (2019), Several studies says that in order
to meet romantic desires of individual dating apps are playing significant role and this is socially
accepted by mass audience. Online dating apps are laced with consent of user in which they can
accept of reject request made by them so in this case higher privacy measures are kept by these
apps which lead the user limitation to reveal their private information in the manner which is
required by them. Online dating apps are likely to pursue romantic desires of individual so the
same can be satisfied by them by finding proper match. Online dating apps are not only finding

match for women but they are finding match for men and same sex couple as well. Various
people are having differentiated needs as according to their physical and emotional demands.
Some people are using dating apps in order to meet sexual satisfaction so this could lead in
developing short-term relationships with people (Curington, Lundquist, & Lin, (2021).
In recent time all the people are using smartphones and by seeing market trends most of
the young people are using dating apps for connecting to the people by whom they can meet their
own physical or mental needs. The definition of love has been changed after introduction of
dating apps as people are seeing various options online which are not lasting for longer time and
lead in developing short term relationships as well. People who have ever used a dating site or
app also have a more positive assessment of relationships forged online. Some 62% of online
daters believe relationships where people first met through a dating site or app are just as
successful as those that began in person, compared with 52% of those who never online dated.
By finding out best match this is possible that physical and mental need of an individual can be
met due to which feeling of love can be lasts longer. According to Albury and et. al., (2019),
This is clear that when love is existed within two people they will be attached and develops such
instances by which responsibility can be rendered within relationships. Dating apps can fuel the
idea that we live in a disposable society and exacerbate feelings of loneliness. A 2018 study by
the Centre for Humane Technology, found that 77% of people who used Grindr and 56% of
Tinder users, reported that the apps made them feel alone as they are not finding suitable match.
There are two major theories which are opposing to each other named Confluent Love,
described by Giddens and Liquid love by Bauman. According to Dougherty (2018), In the theory
of liquid love explanation regarding transition of society from solid to liquid is given in this
modernity of relationship is elaborated which is linked to sexuality. Whereas, Confluent love is
associated with argument of equality for sexual and emotional aspects in modern relationships.
In the context of linkage of these theories, in the perspective of dating apps transformation can
be seen in romantic possibilities over mixing of technologies. According to Hobbs, Owen and
Gerber (2017), the theory of liquid love states regarding dehumanising impact of internet and
technology over nature of modernised love. On the contrary Confluent love states regarding the
manner in which long term relationships can be build up. As in pure relationships with due
respect of mutual consent balance between emotional and sexuality are kept.

Liquid love is a theory provided by Bauman who applies his understanding of wider societal
transitions from solid to liquid form of modernity to sexuality, relationship and sex domains. The
particular emphasis of the theorist is on dehumanizing impact of neoliberalism in these domains.
He inadvertently reveals prejudicial assumptions regarding the sphere of sexual practice,
particularly in context of normatively developed hierarchy of human value. In addition to this, it
is argued that liquid love represents unpersuasive extension of liquefaction thesis of Bauman - a
trend which may see to have consistent with liquid fear. Liquid level and liquid surveillance -
and outline some general flaws in Bauman's account of societal liquefaction process. The
weaknesses of liquid love thesis of Bauman's also point to problematic nature of modernity itself
notion (Curington, Lundquist, & Lin, (2021). Contrary to this thesis that liquid modernity has
ushered in sexual free for all deep rooted in individuality, the activity of sex has been placed
within strongly policed legislative framework. For Bauman, the boundaries between eroticism,
love and sex make them different, however they are not isolated from each other. All the living
creatures have some biological processes which enable them to reproduce, with sex being
biological reproduction process - as well as the one which is not only the preserve of humans. A
form of physicality is retained by sex, that is manifested in arousal mechanics. By contrast, the
sexual practices are places by eroticism within cultural sphere as well as encompasses inventive
cultural manipulation of sexual activities for pleasure.
On the other hand, confluent love is the theory developed by Giddens, that argues that
people are now looking to develop meaningful relationships which are based on respect and love.
It challenges the traditional assumptions regarding how and why relationships must be
maintained. As long as the relationship is beneficial for people, it will continue. On the other
hand, as soon as it is not beneficial, then a person will seek an alternative that possesses
meaningful for foundations of next relationship (Dai, & Robbins, (2021). Giddens argues that
modern relationships are developed on emotions, closeness and intimacy whereas, in the past
these were developed around obligations and duty. The traditional romantic love images are seen
as forever after, what we term as monogamous love. However, the reality is romantic love tends
to let people down as well as due to this sociologist like Giddens discussions about confluent
love. According to the theorist, unlike romantic love, confluent love is not essentially
monogamous, in the sense of sex exclusiveness. The thing that holds pure relationship together is

respect and acceptance on the part of every partner, so that each one gets benefit from that
relation in order to make its continuance worthwhile (Ellyson, Adhia, Lyons, & Rivara, (2021).
3. The Current Study
3. Who is using the dating apps?
According to the view point of Jon Gitlin, (2021), over half of the young adults see dating
applications and sites as platform for casual hook-ups. On the other hand, the older adults see
these platforms as the means to assisting them develop long term and short term relationships.
These diverse perspectives of people are reflected in popularity of the application services people
selected to use. around 75% of young adults who are aged between 18 to 24 years use Tinder
application for hook-ups. Apart from this, Bumble application provides women with soul power
of starting conversations. the adults who are aged between 25 to 34 years’ initiate to transition to
match.com - which is the top dating site for developing long term, serious relationships. Around
58% of the older adults who aged between 45 to 54 years embrace match.com, much than
doubling the percentage of people who use tinder (Dating apps are common, useful - and widely
disliked, 2021). Apart from this, roughly 56% of adults seen dating applications as either
somewhat or negative; the unfavourability of application persist across gender and age group.
For instance: 55% of men and 59% women have either somewhat or negative opinion on dating
applications and sites. It is difficult to diagnose the main cause of such sentiments. The ability to
analyse the character online cannot be easy. People miss out on things such as tone of voice,
body language and other qualities which can assist to direct the instincts of individual and protect
themselves. It has been found in a survey that only 6% of individuals are either very confident or
extremely confident that these services do everything to protect the information of subscriber.
According to the Rob Henderson, (2020), 30 percent of adults have reported to use dating
website or application as of year 2020. The dating apps are pervasive and thus, their users are
representative of general population. A research was conducted to study the differences between
the uses and non-users of dating app. The participants of investigation were the students at large
University who aged between 18 to 29 years. Among these participants, one third reported using
dating apps whereas two thirds of the people are reported who are non-users. From the study, it
has been found that the users of dating application scored significantly low in comparison to the
non-users on self-control. Around 46% of users of dating app reported ever utilising illicit drugs,

in comparison with 28% of non-users. Moreover, 37% of those people who utilise dating
applications reported that they had used drugs, as comparison to 20% of people do not use
application (Who Uses Dating Apps? 2020).
The study also compared male dating application users with non-users as well as female
users with non-users. The male users of dating application scored in the direction that expect on
every measure. The similar was right for differences between the female users and female non-
users, except that for them, there was no significant difference in adversarial self-control or
beliefs. Among the people who utilise dating applications, there are interesting differences found
based on the education. For instance: application users who have less formal education appear to
live in distinct dating reality in comparison to those users with College degree. It has been found
from the study that around 53% of less education or high school students set that their experience
on dating applications have been negative versus 37% of college graduates. As per the results of
study, there are notable differences among the individuals who utilised dating applications and
who don't (Esch, and Cui, (2021).
Figure 1: Most popular online dating apps 2019, by audience size

(Source: Most popular online dating apps 2019)
According to the opinions presented by H. Tankovska, (2021), as of September 2019, it
has been reported that Tinder had reach of 7.86 million users in United States, which makes it
one among the most popular online dating application. Bumble ranks second and had 5.03
million mobile users of the application. At global level, tinder.com was ranked third most
prevalent online dating website in year 2020, with around 59 million visits at the month of
march. During this period, the leading dating site was badoo.com, which is visited by around
182.5 million people per month (Garda, & Karhulahti, (2021).
The main reason people of downloading the dating application is that they are looking for
a connection or relationship. Some individuals looking for something casual or some are looking
for relationships or some just want dinner date. Although, individuals download dating
applications for diverse reasons, they tend to be motivated through curiosity, boredom, hope,
loneliness and convenience. In the today's world, loneliness is a pervasive issue, even if someone
has close family or robust social circle. Apart from this, convenience element is also appealing
highly, as a person can now meet individuals while relaxing in comfort of own home. Though,
boredom, convenience, loneliness, curiosity and hope of finding a relationship or partner are the
most common motivators, however they are not the only ones - around 5% of people download
dating applications as they just got out of relationship as well as looking for someone new
(Habito, Morgan, & Vaughan, (2021).
3.1 Why they are using dating apps?
A stereotype is there that dating applications are utilised only to look for casual sex. These
apps in fact, have been accused of developing a Hook-up culture related to sexuality and
superficiality frivolity. But, it is not the case. It has been found from the study that people uses
dating applications from another reasons also. The application serves of multiple purposes from
which casual sex is one. 70% of application uses indicated that their objective of using this
application is not sex seeking. Six motives are defined by the author for using tinder including
friendship, self-validation, relationship, hooking up, entertainment and travelling. The found that
the causes provided by most users was entertainment, followed through those of travelling and
self-validation, with search of sex. However, adaptation of the scale didn't have psychometric
properties as well as it has not been reduced (Harmon, & Duffy, (2021).

As per the opinions presented by Kelsie Lope, (2020), there are some reasons behind
people prefer to utilize dating apps for finding a partner. According to the survey it has been
found that many of the adults are turning to dating applications to find out connection. Apart
from this, they want to do it in a convenient way and dating apps are convenient for them. By
just few clicks, a person can have a connection. This is what busy people are looking for a kind
of convenience. In addition to this, the individuals who are introverts and do not go out are also
find dating application convenient to find connections and relationships from the comfort of
mobile phone (Jalili, (2021). The another reason of using dating application is that it has all the
options. A reliable dating application has various categories of connections and dating. Whether
a person is looking for long-term or serious relationship that leads to marriage or casual dating,
he or she can peruse profiles of individuals who are interested in it. The application like Happy
matches provide such kind of services and has assisted individuals to find preferred relationships.
In addition to this, individuals can also connect with people from preferred interest, careers,
location and various other options. Moreover, curiosity and boredom are also the reason why
people are using dating applications. As individuals read about dating apps over the website or
social media, the get curious. Among these people, most are the youngsters and when they hear
about the application from their friends, the get curious (Malherbe, (2021).
On the other hand, older people turn to dating applications when they are bored. This
involves widowers, widows and divorce people or those individuals who can unfortunately no
longer find out lovers in partners. Dating application also increases the chances of finding out the
right partner, which is the another reason of why people using dating apps. Meeting individuals
as well as falling for them can lead to disappointment as individuals barely know them.
However, the online dating application enable people to read through profiles as well as see
individuals with preferred qualities. Even though people might lie, the person still have an
opportunity of dating online for a while in order to get to know about each other more. It
maximizes the chances of finding out right partner as well as the decline the chances of
heartbreak. It has been found from the research that the rate of divorce among the couples who
met online is less in comparison to the individuals who meet in other ways (Noland, (2021).
3.2 How different groups are interacting trough dating apps
In last some years, dating applications have revolutionized the manner of interacting and
meeting with potential partners. In parallel to the popularization of dating apps, large knowledge

body has been generated that, however not been gathered in any review. The societies have seen
rapid evolution in culture over the last decade, accelerated through widespread technology
access, specialist smartphones. The online dating application like tinder had reported around 7.5
million daily swipes in nation (O’Leary, (2021). People use internet for searching of partners
surged, largely driven through maximized adoption of smartphone dating application. Individuals
are choosing various types of virtual dating tools that may have distinct partnering intentions,
readiness to commit or values. The dating application Tinder attracts people searching for sexual
partners only. The individuals who are single and choose mobile dating application may have
specific psychological features which affect the manner they construct and develop relationships.
3.2.1 Young adults
Among the young adults, mobile dating application is gaining high popularity. Tinder is
one among the mobile dating application which is designed to use in mobile phones as well as
boasts up to 50 million users. Online dating has become socially acceptable among adults as the
organisations profiting on the sides have developed billion-dollar industry through making dating
online appeal to masses. Societal changes like reduced pressure to marry, increased social
mobility and increased work pressure have opened up the singles to probability to meeting
partners online (Phillips, (2021). In the modern age, the desire for finding out romantic partner
endures. Around 7 billion individuals have access to internet and they are more aware about the
dating apps. During the young adulthood, dating anxiety becomes more relevant. It is referred as
the distress, worry and inhibition experienced at the time of interaction with dating members or
partners of opposite sex. It has been explored from the research that whether dating online was
specifically attractive for individuals who suffer from online dating anxiety, as internet may be
consider as less threatening and safe environment for dating in comparison to face to face
situations or real world situations. The people who visited dating websites are reported low level
of offline dating anxiety. Apart from this, internet enable individuals to lie more easily regarding
What they look like and who they are. Therefore, the resulting internet matches uncertainty has
been defined as risky. Some of the dating applications of coupled with social media profiles. For
instance: Facebook and tinder. Thus, the deceptive information risk seems to remain exist. High
sensation seekers young adults are more positive towards casual sex as well as engage often in
sexually oriented behaviour (Radinsky, (2021). Potentially, the general positive orientation of
individual towards casual sex might motivate them to utilise dating application for casual sex

instead of for love motives. Although, sexual orientation and gender can be seen as predictors of
dating application use as well as motivations, media research or investigation has also signalled
their significance in shaping the impact of personality based antecedents in the utilisation of
social media. Therefore, the impact of personality based variables may differ for women and
men and through sexual orientation.
3.2.2 Mid-life re-partnering
The people who are in the age between 30s and 40s and are belongs to middle age group
interact with dating apps for re-partnering. The people who are aged between 30 to 40 years have
listed themselves as single on the social media website like Facebook. Dating applications are
used as the source of the re-partnering by the people who get separated from their partners. They
also use the application to search for the true partners online (Schwartz, Grimm, Zimmerman, &
Clement, (2021). The online interaction makes sure an extent of anonymity and privacy: there
was no directive to upload a profile picture, or reveal the real name. This makes it easy and
convenient for the people who belong to mid age group to use the application and find out their
true partners.
3.2.3 LGBQ+
Internet has impacted highly on the day-to-day lives of the people. It has altered the way
people meet as well as maintain relationship with partners or friends. Through it, wider
communities or private liaisons alike can be established outside mainstream geographic/ social
boundaries. Thus, internet has been specifically useful for opening up opportunities to
individuals belonging to stigmatised/ hidden groups. LGBT communities the early adopters of
internet. They use it to find romantic partners or sexual partners, get health information, make
friends and access pornography (Yap, (2021). Men who have sex with men have been likely to
utilise internet for sexual pursuits. One among the cause that they might seek partners online is
because of lack of perceived support. The recent creation of gay dating applications,
predominantly targeted at men who have sex with men and enable them to present themselves in
cyberspace. This provides them with the opportunity to engage with the partners available to
them. The modern digital platforms allow people to meet partners easily in comparison to the
difficulty that men who have sex with men may have with forming and managing relationships
in the heteronormative physical environment. There has been surge found in the use of gay

dating application by the men who have sex with men such as Romeo, Scruff and Grinder (Who
Uses Dating Apps? 2020).
Gay dating application often catered to distinct target audiences as well as come with own
social norms. It enables users to develop / browse profiles containing some demographic/
biographical information and photographs as well as to connect through proximity in real time.
This application has a lot common with older websites of gay theme like dating sites and chat.
Users still develop profiles where they can be able to share personal information which is utilised
to filter various other uses with whom they want to communicate with by private messages. In
addition to this, some dating sites and chat now have app versions and desktop which means that
the main distinction between as well as new gay dating app is mostly down to the use of latter of
location to filter the potential partners. Although, men who have sex with men can use gay dating
application for finding friendships, social networks and dates, the very common reason is
mitigating individuals to hook up with (Alba, (2021).
Discussion and Conclusion
Online dating apps are totally focused on physical attraction and physical appearance due to
which this is creating doubts in minds of users that they will find true love or not. For some
people dating apps are made for developing hook-ups so users do not prefer to use the same.
These online dating apps are satisfying various motives of individual in which they can acquire
short or long term personal goals. According to Vernon (2019), Several studies says that in order
to meet romantic desires of individual dating apps are playing significant role and this is socially
accepted by mass audience. Online dating apps are laced with consent of user in which they can
accept or reject request made by them so in this case higher privacy measures are kept by these
apps which lead the user limitation to reveal their private information in the manner which is
required by them (Chisom, (2021). Online dating apps are likely to pursue romantic desires of
individual so the same can be satisfied by them by finding proper match. Online dating apps are
not only finding match for women but they are finding match for men and same sex couple as
well. Various people are having differentiated needs as according to their physical and emotional
demands. Some people are using dating apps in order to meet sexual satisfaction so this could
lead in developing short-term relationships with people.
According to the survey it has been found that many of the adults are turning to dating
applications to find out connection. Apart from this, they want to do it in a convenient way and

dating apps are convenient for them. By just few clicks, a person can have a connection. This is
what busy people are looking for a kind of convenience (Curington, Lundquist, & Lin, (2021). In
addition to this, the individuals who are introverts and do not go out are also find dating
application convenient to find connections and relationships from the comfort of mobile phone.
The another reason of using dating application is that it has all the options. A reliable dating
application has various categories of connections and dating. Whether a person is looking for
long-term or serious relationship that leads to marriage or casual dating, he or she can peruse
profiles of individuals who are interested in it. The application like Happy matches provide such
kind of services and has assisted individuals to find preferred relationships. In addition to this,
individuals can also connect with people from preferred interest, careers, location and various
other options. Moreover, curiosity and boredom are also the reason why people are using dating
applications. As individuals read about dating apps over the website or social media, the get
curious. Among these people, most are the youngsters and when they hear about the application
from their friends, the get curious (Curington, Lundquist, & Lin, (2021).
On the other hand, older people turn to dating applications when they are bored. This
involves widowers, widows and divorce people or those individuals who can unfortunately no
longer find out lovers in partners. Dating application also increases the chances of finding out the
right partner, which is the another reason of why people using dating apps. Meeting individuals
as well as falling for them can lead to disappointment as individuals barely know them.
However, the online dating application enable people to read through profiles as well as see
individuals with preferred qualities. Even though people might lie, the person still have an
opportunity of dating online for a while in order to get to know about each other more. It
maximizes the chances of finding out right partner as well as the decline the chances of
heartbreak. It has been found from the research that the rate of divorce among the couples who
met online is less in comparison to the individuals who meet in other ways (Ellyson, Adhia,
Lyons, & Rivara, (2021).
As per the above mentioned report it has been concluded that dating apps are very popular
nowadays these are most commonly used by young adults to meet their desires. Increasing
popularity of online dating apps provides benefits to people in significant manner. The provide
ease to them to connect with people and decide their loved ones as per their preferences. Online
applications satisfying different motives of people in which they acquire various personal goals

which are short term and long term. They not only help men and women in finding the right
match, but also help the same sex couple as well. There are two main theories including liquid
love and confluent love which are associated with relationship. The liquid love theory provides
understanding about wider societal transitions and emphasize on dehumanising impact of
neoliberalism. On the other hand, the confused love theory emphasizes on developing
meaningful relationships based on love and respect. Many of the people are now using dating
apps to find out the right partners. Apart from this there are various another reasons due to which
people are using dating apps more. These reasons include loneliness, boredom, curiosity,
physical needs, sexual preferences etc. The dating applications are changing the love now a day.

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