Online services that promise to find people romantic matches have been likened to gambling products designed to keep customers hooked “Designed to be deleted” is the tagline of one of the UK’s most popular dating apps. Hinge promises that it is “the dating app for people who want to get off dating apps” – the place to find lasting love. But critics say modern dating is in crisis. They claim that dating apps, which have been downloaded hundreds of millions of times worldwide, are “exploitative” and are designed not to be deleted but to be addictive, to retain users in order to create revenue. Continue reading...

As research shows many have a poor online dating experience, those who have deleted the apps discuss pitfalls The rise of dating apps in the last decade has changed the way people forge relationships, with Pew research conducted in 2022 finding that 53% of US adults under 30 have used online dating. Despite their rise in use, however, dating apps have caused dissatisfaction and despair among many users, as Pew found 46% of all users (and 51% of women) had a negative experience of online dating. Continue reading...

Platform run from industrial estate in Cumbria and catering to alternative relationships has expanded globally A dating app aimed at alternative relationships nearly doubled its revenues last year as non-monogamous, queer and kinky users helped the UK-based business expand its reach across the world. Feeld, founded by an entrepreneur couple in an open relationship, has said it is “on a mission to elevate the human experience of sexuality and relationships” from its registered office on an industrial estate in Carlisle, Cumbria. Continue reading...

In this uniquely absurd mishmash of adventure and dating game, you are a house looking for love on an island of eligible bachelor pads Navigating the perils of the contemporary dating scene is a formidable task for any singleton. How much do you really have in common with this stranger? Do you share the same values? Can you be vulnerable enough to let them in? With Building Relationships, game developer Tanat Boozayaangool considers all of these pressing questions, while asking one more – what if you were also a house? Yes, the title of this dating adventure game is to be taken literally. In Building Relationships, you play as the latest eligible “bachelorx pad” on an island of romantic opportunity. Your main goal is to crack on with its other citizens, which include himbo tents, blunt houseboats, and a windmill, for good measure. “Millie (the windmill) is pretty flirty, and it comes out of nowhere sometimes,” says Boozayaangool. “People are either really into it or not at all.” Building Relationships will be released on PC; release date TBC Continue reading...