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Are you Lonesome Tonight?

Young people who turn to dating apps for love hunt still feel lonely, while the
dating platforms capitalize this loneliness.

By Suan Yeon

niversity student Sei Su-
guro receives 300 likes
Uon dating app Bumble a
day, but she still feels lonely.
“I use the dating app when I feel
lonely or bored. I have only really
liked one person whom I found via
dating apps despite having been us-
ing them for three years. We met
up in real life but we lost touch,” the
23-year-old student says.
“I feel great when a lot of people
like my profile. But my self-esteem
hits low when these people don’t want
to see me again after meeting me in
person once. Despite all these likes
for my profile in the cyberworld, I still
feel lonely,” the Japanese student says.
The pharmacy major student, who
wants to find a boyfriend using dat- Digital c onnections o ften fail to meet expectations, c ontributing to f eelings o f loneliness
Digital connections often fail to meet expectations, contributing to feelings of loneliness
among users.
ing apps, says most people on dating among user s.
apps are not serious about fostering “The reality is that finding people 2029, with the majority aged between
relationships. from the apps is more convenient es- 18 and 34.
“I don’t trust people from dating pecially if I am craving some sort of A 2024 Forbes Health Survey of
apps. At this point, I am not even immediate affection. Everyone wants 1,000 Americans found that more
hoping for a serious relationship any- to be loved and everyone wants to fall than three-quarters of Gen Z respond-
more,” the Japanese student adds. in love,” the Brazilian student adds. ents felt burnt out using dating apps
Graduate student Ariel Migliorini, The 22-year-old student is now such as Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge.
who has been on the apps for 5 years, taking a break from the apps, but has According to the survey, respondents
has already met hundreds of people. not deleted them. He has downloaded of all ages could not find a good con-
Sometimes the experienced user goes four different kinds of dating apps nection with someone. They spend an
on dates almost every day with differ- such as Tinder and Bumble in the last average of an hour on these apps every
ent strangers. But none of them has five years. day.
successfully developed into a serious A 2025 market report from Statis- A UK cohort study of 1,632 young
relationship. ta, an online platform specialising adults, published in the Annals of the
“I have many dates. In Brazil, in data gathering and visualisation, New York Academy of Sciences, dis-
people use dating apps for one night points out that the number of dating covered 12% of them had used dating
stands. It is easier to find people in app users in China reached 82.8 mil- apps. Meanwhile, the group reported
Brazil because people are more open- lion in 2024. The report adds that in a significantly higher sense of loneli-
minded and direct with their inten- Hong Kong, the number of app users ness than non-dating app users.
tions than in Hong Kong,” he says. is projected to reach nearly 500,000 by Adjunct Associate Professor Lik