Dating apps should fix their problems before saddling us with new ones

From lawsuits to fumbled advertising campaigns, are we falling out of love with online dating? Recent Ofcom data showed a decline in UK users, and Gen Z seems to increasingly hanker after in-person romantic spontaneity. More broadly, the rise of online dating has been accompanied by growing social isolation and loneliness, as well as polarisation of attitudes between younger men and women on topics like the value of feminism or ideals of healthy masculinity.

To understand these changes, we need to recognise that dating apps have transformed how we connect in two ways: they make our search for intimacy …