Romance on a Mobile Stage
Apple trademarked the phrase “There’s an app for that” in 2010. They did this when the app store began to thrive and developers began creating apps that could do just about anything you can imagine. Apple wanted the users to know that whatever your need is, whether it be news, plane tickets, or a game that allows you to break pieces of candy, that you can go find it on the app store. In 2014, the app called Tinder was released becoming one of the first apps to find you a date. Tinder was not the first to release an app that helped you find a date, but it was one of the first to be exclusively available in app form.
The original medium for finding a date was in person. If you wanted a date, then you had to muster up all of your courage and walk up to the girl and ask her in person. It took courage, guts, and skill to land a date within just a few minutes of meeting someone. For a very long time that was the most effective and only available way to get a date, until websites came along that is. In the late 90’s into the early 2000’s there was a large dating website boom. Dating websites were a huge hit because it was so much easier to schedule a date from the comfort of your couch, instead of having to get dressed up and going to a bar. There was also the added bonus of not needing to be courageous or to have the smoothest pick-up lines. Instead all that is needed is a flattering profile pic and a bio of your top five accomplishments. Online dating removed the scariest part out of dating, human interaction.
One of the issues with online dating is it has always carried a stigma with it. It is seen as desperate or as a last resort when you can’t cut it in the real world doing things the old- fashioned way. This is where apps have helped change the mindset that has always come along with online dating. Apps, like Tinder, have brought dating right to your finger tips and made it more accessible than ever. This has made it more acceptable to use online dating as an actual first option rather than a last resort. Now applications like Tinder, Bumble, and Happn are all reforming the industry to make it more acceptable to date online. Very similar to Mail-Order Brides as discussed by Constable, the medium is shifting away from print catalogs and newspaper ads to websites. Although the entirety of dating and mail-order brides has not shifted to the new medium entirely, as time and technology progress more companies will make the changes necessary to stay relevant.
