In her 2012 book, Addiction by designAnthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll postpone the various technological mechanisms that casinos use to make people gamble. From the architecture of buildings and the placement of ATMs to the design of casino mats – all is an example of strategic calculation. As a stir for a gambling program that once put it, the various elements that make up the modern gambling experience are “symphonies of individual technologies” that come together to create “a single experience”, calibrated in a way to people late play, to maximize, to maximize ‘time on device.’

Does it sound familiar? Schüll thinks so. “There is something very similar to the mechanisms built into dating apps, especially with swip,” she says. ‘To wipe left and right – it’s almost like a horizontal slot machine. You really don’t know what you’re going to get. ‘

Although Schüll does not think that these agreements are limited to just dating apps (she calls the stock-trading app Robinhood), she believes they all have one thing in common: Strategies to keep users in place and reduce friction. What then does it mean if friction enters the picture? If users spend less time in the “hold” and less energy on the machine?

It is true that the amount of time spent on dating apps has decreased over the years. A recent Forbes survey of users of the dating app has shown that they spend an average of about 51 minutes a day. Ten years ago, they devoted 100 minutes to platforms like Bumble.

It is also true that the growth of paying users has delayed, accompanied by a slight decline in the number of Americans saying they use dating apps. However, one app is particularly lower than any other – Tinder, the creator of the Swipe. Although Tinder still has the title for the most commonly used dating app, its overall download has dropped since 2020, while downloading programs such as bumble and hinge has been constantly increasing since 2021. Years, while the monthly active user numbers have dropped over the past three quarters.

Explanations for this decline are just as numerous as the number of dating apps on the market. “It may be some of the novelty effect, it can be disappointment, it may be that there are other activities that take their time, such as sports gambling, it can be exhaustion,” says Schüll.

For her last point, dating app -fatigue is a real thing. The same Forbes poll showed that 80 percent of the millennial users – the group that most use these programs – were reported.

Another cause attributed to this decline is the exodus of the dating app, which took place after a rise in use during the pandemic, as many young users are now seeking more ‘rights’ connections. And of course there is that age-old tedium: boredom.

“In the design, they are constantly raising the ante-if there is a video poker machine, there will be triple video poker, and then it is a video poker with a video poker of 100 Players, ”says Schüll. “If you move to the next one, you can’t go back. So it is a tolerance effect. Perhaps these programs have exhausted the potential to keep people to a certain point and did not do the job to take it to the next, higher, more intense level. “

Regardless of the reason for the decline, one thing is certain – the date of apps is still alive and will not disappear soon. And if there is anything to take away from the fact that people jump the Tinder ship for other appointments, it may be that the right contenders are on our love and attention that we want to keep the longest. Those who want us to play the game forever.

Yes, the use of the app has reached a highlight somewhat

In general, the use of the app app use in the time of the Covid-19 closures in 2020, between 2019 and 2022, the percentage of American adults using online dating sites dropped from 18 percent to 15 percent.