Your mom is probably wrong: Tinder* is not destroying love as we know it. For that, we can blame any number of factors: a culture riddled with toxic masculinity, the devaluing of female pleasure, erasure of queer voices, lack of comprehensive sex ed. I could go on. (*I'm going to use using Tinder interchangeably with “dating apps.” I know Tinder leaves a lot of us (hayyy queer ladies) in the dust, and that there are myriad apps out there for all identities and tastes. But let’s be real, it’s the Kleenex of apps.)
Why the nostalgia for the way it used to be? The dating culture we yearn for never really existed. But it can. There is a romantic future where we feel listened to, respected, and even satisfied — and dating apps can be part of that future.
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