Match Group, creators of Tinder, Hinge and Match.com, were named in a proposed class-action lawsuit on Valentine’s Day. Filed in California, the lawsuit claims the group is guilty of “false advertising” and violation of consumer protection laws.
Six plaintiffs from across the United States filed the lawsuit against the group’s platforms because they believe they have been victimized by Match’s “addictive, game-like design features, which lock users into a perpetual play-to-play loop that prioritizes corporate profits over its making promises and customers’ relationship goals.”
While Match Group called the lawsuit “ridiculous” in a statement to news outlets, the case’s six plaintiffs believe the apps “employ recognized dopamine-manipulating product features” that lead users to become “gamblers” as they pay for “psychologically manipulative” add-ons that “ensure they remain on the app perpetually.”
Junior special education major at the University of Mississippi Lydia Robbins believes she has been on both sides of this debate, as she and her boyfriend of one year met on Hinge after several years as active, but non-paying, members of the app.
“If you’re not in the mindset to find a relationship, I think it does become a social media app,” Robbins said. “In a sense, you’re trying to find as much validation from other people as possible.”
Robbins elaborated further, sharing she never thought she would find dating success on the platform.
“I never expected to find a real relationship out of it, but I did,” Robbins said.
Robbins is among the 53% of adults under 30 who have used a dating app and the one-in-five partnered adults under 30 who met their partner on a dating app, according to the Pew Research Center. Robbins has used Tinder and Hinge, which account for 46% and 19% of online dating platform memberships held by Americans younger than 30.
Boasting the slogan “designed to be deleted,” some UM students do not feel Hinge or other dating platforms aid them in making meaningful romantic connections.
“Casually talking with my friends, I refer to it as a game,” Hayden Jalufka, a freshman English education major and Hinge user, said.
She finds that features such as the “daily refresh” and limited likes emphasize the game-like feel of Hinge.
“It’s hard to meet other queer women in class or at school, and it’s fun to see who likes me or who likes my friends,” Jalufka said. “Dating apps do make that easier.”
Jalufka mentioned the drawbacks to using the Hinge platform.
“As annoying as it sounds, it’s exhausting to constantly worry about who likes you, who messaged you and how a conversation went,” Jalufka said.
While she has met one match in person, Jalufka does not believe any connection she has made on the app has had potential.
Senior entrepreneurship major Claire Watkiss has used Hinge in the past, but she feels that dating apps are relatively useless.
“Very rarely has a guy actually asked for my number and texted me,” Watkiss said. “Usually in the app, a match will message me, I’ll respond and then nobody will ever message again. The conversation is just left sitting there.”
While the apps’ social-media-like nature is a turn-off for Watkiss, Yale Cahill, a junior general business student, thinks interactions on the apps are entertaining.
“Coming from a really small town, getting (Hinge and Tinder) was exciting,” Cahill said. “On dating apps, my friends and I got to meet people we’d never had the chance to meet, people who didn’t go to the same high school.”
Cahill believes that negative side effects of dating apps, such as addiction or so-called “gambling,” depend on the platforms one chooses to use.
“Tinder has turned into more of a video game, but Hinge is easier to navigate and connect over,” Cahill said. “Tinder has so many paywalls that I’ve turned to Hinge.”
He finds it easy to step away from dating apps when he needs to. As a self-proclaimed extrovert, he believes Hinge supplements his social interaction on days when he does not have time to socialize in person, as it allows him to meet and message someone new no matter his schedule.
Like Watkiss and Cahill, Robbins and Jalufka have also stepped back from dating apps at one point or another.
“In the few months I’ve had Hinge, I’ve deleted and re-downloaded the app two or three times,” Jalufka said. “It’s not on my phone right now. I’m tired of it. It is something that I would wake up and check and that can’t be good.”
Robbins and her friends saw compulsive tendencies with Hinge as well.
“All of my friends have hyper-fixated on dating apps in the past to the point where we all deleted them last January,” Robbins said. “We all got back in Hinge in February of 2023, and thankfully that’s when I met (my boyfriend).”
While most UM students do agree that the apps can lead to unhealthy tendencies, none have opted to pay for add-ons to the app, and they find it easy to recognize and take action against unhealthy behaviors in their dating app use.
Despite the announcement of the class-action lawsuit, Match Group believes that revenue on their platforms will continue to increase. The lawsuit has been assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler of the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California. Dates for pre-trial proceedings for the lawsuit have yet to be announced.
