In this new age, our lives have begun to revolve around technology, even our love lives. 

While there are pros to meeting people online, such as their ability to defy distance, there are obvious cons that I feel aren’t vocalized enough. Mainly speaking, the effects of online apps on mental health. 

The main reason an online dater’s mental health is negatively impacted is that many online sites and apps foster narcissism. 

The saying “well at least I have my personality” is hardly even applicable for most online daters, as all that you typically see of someone online is their photo gallery plastered onto a page. If not about the pictures on one’s profile page, then it’s about the pictures sent through a chat. Snapchat is notorious for this type of “chatting.”

Apps like Snapchat revolve almost entirely around physical appearance and leave little room for much else. Snapchat’s mere design even supports this claim. Snapchat’s main mode of communication is through photos, which give you but a few lines of text to convey yourself. 

The type of “dating” that apps like Snapchat facilitate is all about instant gratification, usually through the exchange of pictures. The saying “a picture speaks a thousand words” is hardly relevant when all the picture speaks of is your bust size. 

How can you see the kind of person someone is (and I mean metaphorically see, because I’m sure you literally see quite a lot through these apps) when all you have is a photo?

Amidst all of this narcism, apps like Snapchat also have created a self-esteem vacuum. When people don’t fit what they feel is the criteria, their mental health as well as their self-esteem suffer a blow. 

The professor of psychology at the University of North Texas, Trent Petrie, has similar insight.

“With a focus on appearance and social comparisons, individuals can become overly sensitised to how they look and appear to others and ultimately begin to believe that they fall short of what is expected of them in terms of appearance and attractiveness,” Petrie said. 

As high schoolers we are typically apt to refute whatever professors throw at us just for the sake of them being professors, but you have to agree that his line of reasoning does make sense, right? 

To clear up the cases of any outliers, I will concede that if navigated properly, you can achieve a healthy relationship through online dating apps and sites. This is difficult though and seldom done, but if you want to be the Christoper Columbus of Christian Mingle, go for it. 

How you manage your Instagram or Snapchat is of little concern to me, but can you really tell me that your online boyfriend living two states away is making you feel better about yourself? If not, maybe you should reassess.