Molly Wood
MACHINE LEARNING
BLESS or curse the smartphone, but you can’t doubt its impact. Even digital dating has become a hand-held activity.
Online dating, long dominated by big outfits like Match.com and eHarmony, has in the last two years been transformed by the rise of Tinder, the mobile phone app that lets its users scan photos and short profiles of potential dates.
Then, as easy as a swipe of a finger, you can decide if you want to chat or pass on a prospect.
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Then there are the long profiles of potential matches to read, messages to sift through or delete, and a barrage of communication from the sites themselves. Managing an online dating profile can feel like a full-time job; Tinder is more like a little hobby.
However, Ms. Spira, the online dating expert, says that people who use Tinder are also using other dating sites, sometimes even paying for memberships. Mr. Thombre confirmed that many Tinder users were also Match or OkCupid users, either at the same time or after they give up on one and move on to the next.
And Ms. Spira said that having easy access to lots of different dates actually increases your odds of eventually finding a match.
“It’s making dates happen a lot more quickly,” she said. “The more dates you go on, the better dater you become, so let mobile dating apps become your new best friend.”
Email: molly.wood@nytimes.com; Twitter: @mollywood
