Tinder forever changed the landscape of online dating when it introduced the swipe function in 2012: left to pass, right to like. The result was a gamified experience that felt frictionless and addictive. Other dating apps copied it, and then the "swipe era" ignited.

Before that, online dating was mostly on boring websites, like Christian Mingle and Farmers Only, that felt closer to digital classifieds. Matches were more local and delivered in slower batches, and users worked through profiles and messages to decide whom to meet. The process is now largely automated by an algorithm and resembles a game, with matches presented in rapid succession.

Tinder and other dating apps have forever changed how heterosexual couples in the U.S. meet, overtaking introductions through friends around 2013, according to a recent survey.

The chart below shows how online dating was fundamentally transformed by two waves of technology: first, the online web's takeoff in the mid-1990s, and then the smartphone era after 2007. The rise of the iPhone and Tinder in 2012 helped propel the second wave, with roughly 40% of heterosexual couples in the U.S. now meeting online. That figure was in the low single digits in the mid-1990s.

"We find that Internet meeting is displacing the roles that family and friends once played in bringing couples together," researchers Michael Rosenfeld, Reuben Thomas, and Sonia Hausen wrote in the 2019 paper.

Online dating hasn't rewritten love - it's just greatly expanded the pool of potential partners. It also shows how an even larger share of human life now happens online.

Remember during the Covid-era when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg aggressively pushed the metaverse as a way to move more of daily life online?

Beyond the metaverse's failures, online dating has also been running into headwinds lately, as younger people reduce screen time and choose to meet in the real world again.

According to Adjust.com, an app insight blog, "Looking at dating app installs and sessions from January 2023 to December 2024, it's clear that user interest has been gradually declining. From January 2023 to December 2024, dating app installs and sessions declined by 13% year over year. Despite this overall decrease, sessions remained resilient, particularly during key seasonal periods."

And, weirdly enough, Gen Z has given up on alcohol (readers already know that), but a new report suggests they're also giving up on sex. Likely because sex can lead to babies, and babies can lead to drained bank accounts.

It increasingly looks like Gen Z's habits are reshaping daily life and parts of the economy. They've certainly dented alcohol consumption and may soon influence family formation. And, as noted above, they could also be contributing to a peak in dating app usage.