It will not be many years ago that those people who wanted to socialize went to discos, bars or nightclubs to be able to socialize and meet people. Some meeting points that helped to discover better halfs, have a good time and communicate with new people. The irruption of technology in our lives, and especially the use of mobile devices with an infinite number of applications, has been in charge of revolutionizing “chic@ seeks chic@” and bringing the possibility of flirting closer to everyone.
Today, finding someone to have sex with is as easy as selecting a photograph and suggesting the intention of meeting in the most intimate sense of the expression. Something that has greatly simplified social relationships among those who are only looking for sexual experiences. Tinder, Grindr, Badoo... are just some of these networks that have helped to make express sex universal thanks to algorithms that prioritize the location of their users. This is a series of (apparent) advantages but they are also causing havoc among some of its regulars.
In fact, mental health experts are already warning that abuse of dating apps can have a similar effect to that of slots. They justify that the addictive consumption they generate is not accidental, but that it is researched and based on science thanks to intermittent reinforcement and choice paralysis. In this way, it is not surprising that one in three users of dating applications considers themselves addicted, according to a study published by the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU). So much so that users are not able to disconnect from these apps even when they are working. The statistics show that 9 out of 10 admit to having used a dating application at work at least once, the daily average being about 30 to 45 minutes.
"Sexual arousal is like a drug for brain stimulation purposes and also when it comes to secreting dopamine, that neurotransmitter that is responsible for rewarding our body with pleasure when faced with certain stimuli that are initially positive," explains Dr. Sandra Bravo Herrero, expert in psychiatry. For this reason, Tinder and its substitutes "can end up becoming an addiction" for the most advanced user and for the one who dedicates the most time to the cause. And as in any situation of dependency, "it alters behaviour, causes mood swings and even states of anxiety when it does not achieve what it proposes".
The case of Mateo Pinto, a 35-year-old man who frequently uses Tinder, goes a little further. Ever since he discovered the world of dating apps, he recognizes that when plans don't quite work out for him, he detects changes in his sense of humor. "When I have some expectations for a certain day and, for whatever reason, they don't end up coming out, I get frustrated and I get a downturn that spoils the rest of the day." For the psychologist Mónica Núñez, being left without a plan "we make it worse due to the little capacity to frustration, that we want everything now, and it is coupled with the impulsiveness that makes us reopen the application -in many cases- to appease that upset and try to get another appointment.
Dating apps are widespread among the society all over the world. According to the Top Doctors medical portal, of the 54 million singles in the United States, 41 acknowledge that they have used or use applications to find a partner. And another interesting reference that is extracted from a collection of data and medical studies carried out by Dr. Sandra Bravo, is that one in three users is addicted to dating apps. These are statistics that have put the medical sector on alert, which is already working to propose a scale with which to measure the abusive use of these applications.
For Núñez, users of Tinder, Grindr and others, who have been sexually active for several years, can end up having a lot of problems when it comes to establishing relationships when they want to. According to Núñez, it is due to a certain dehumanization in social relations; "because we can come to see the other person as an object to access our desire." What after years of relationship in this way, "can lead to an existential vacuum and a certain anxiety and pressure to maintain what covers that gap," the specialist qualifies. It is something that is worrying psychologists because they find it more and more in their consultations.
Mateo considers that their sexual relations are full, satisfactory and, most important for him, constant. For this reason, when he detected that his mood changed negatively if an appointment fell at the last minute, "I realized that he could have a problem in this regard." And more considering that his sexual rhythm has little or nothing to do with the activity he had before being a user of these applications. For the psychiatrist, something like this should not affect a person's state of mind to that point, "because, after all, with that person with whom you cannot stay in the end, you do not have any extensive bond and you hardly know each other." knows him”.
The doctor believes that people like our testimony should analyze the situation and think if what happens to them on Tinder is the result of overstating the situation and giving it more importance than it really has. Finally, Bravo emphasizes the seriousness that this issue can take when the user stops doing things in their real life to constantly and almost continuously attend to virtual contacts. “That should make us reflect and work on it in therapy, because perhaps there is something like personality traits, dependency or an alteration in the degree of importance given to things at the base”, comments the psychiatrist.
The so-called intermittent or variable reinforcement in reward systems comes from studies such as Skinner's box or the experiment by psychologists James Olds and Peter Milner. What these studies revealed is that the uncertainty regarding obtaining a reward is more addictive than the certainty of having a reward for a positive attitude.
Bravo justifies it as "a very primary mechanism of our brain, in which an impulse gives us pleasure and, therefore, we will tend to look for that stimulus again to obtain the well-being that it initially produced." The psychiatrist member of Top Doctors believes that with interactions with dating applications "in our brain there is a dopamine "shot" when we slide a profile and make a "match", when we receive a message from someone we like or when the app notifies us that someone has liked us”.
To all this journey of stimuli, satisfaction, and dependency, a drawback is added to these Tinder-type applications, and that is that the possible reward appeals to basic human instincts, such as validation before others, success, having offspring, or finding love from others. your life.
