Online dating is truly agonising

This is not the first time nor the last time that I will rant about how terrible online dating is. I have been forced to resort to online dating over the past few years because a) I am too shy to meet anyone in real life and b) it's kind of the way things are done these days. But I'm not happy about it. 

The absolute worst thing about online dating is the constant rejection. I try to brace myself for it, but it feels so defeating to talk to someone online for ages only to have them ignore you. I always feel guilty if I don't reply to a message, so I have a no-ghosting policy most of the time. For this reason, I am almost always the person getting ghosted. After a while, it just starts to hurt. 

Online dating is also just so boring. I find messaging really tiring, and it's really hard to have a normal conversation on an app. You end up trying to think of creative things to say that make you sound like an interesting person. 

If you are unfamiliar with dating apps, here are a few common scenarios on online apps: 

• you match with someone and work up the courage to send them a message, but you don't get a reply 
• someone sends you a message that is creepy, sexist or otherwise offensive 
• you start talking to someone who you are so incompatible with that you end up having a full-blown internet argument with them
• you talk to someone for ages but it eventually becomes clear that the other person isn't at all interested in meeting up in person
• you manage to have a positive online conversation with someone, but when you meet in person, it turns out the person is really different to how you imagined them and it is clear to both of you that there is no chemistry whatsoever! 

I think one of the problems is that people use the same apps to look for a range of things: relationships, casual sex, new friends, or even just the validation of getting 'matches'. Usually, we don't make it clear what we are looking for, and some people might not even know themselves. Dating apps also encourage people to focus on looks and to dismiss people for superficial reasons. 

So will I delete my dating apps soon? Probably. Will I re-download them again when I get lonely in a few weeks' time? For sure. Going through the agonising process of online dating is the inevitable plight of a lonely single person in today's world.