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Mental Health

‘Dating’ Apps are Making Gay Men Miserable: STUDY

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A recent study on men who have sex with other men (MSM) who use dating apps like Grindr or Scruff have higher rates of depression.

The study by The Journal of Psychology and Sexuality says, “the technology intended to make our (love) lives easier may be getting in the way of happiness.”

Psychology Today reported, “Most of the men in the study were single at the time of participating (60.2 percent), while 21 percent reported that they were in an open relationship and 18.8 percent reported that they were in an exclusive relationship. Participants completed an online questionnaire in which they answered questions about their sense of belonging within the LGBT community, their self-esteem, loneliness, life satisfaction, and their overall frequency and intensity of using various gay dating apps. For example, they were asked how often they logged into gay dating apps and their primary motivation for doing so, from which they could select the following options: to make new friends, to meet people to have sex with, to find someone to date, to kill time, or to connect with the gay community. Participants could also enter their own reason for using gay dating apps if none of the provided responses were suitable.”

The participants in the study reported logging into gay dating apps frequently, with 71.2 percent logging in at least once per day, with the majority of participants logging in 2 to 4 times per day. Just under half of the sample indicated that their primary use for the apps was to meet people for sex. The second most frequently cited reason was to find someone to date, however, this was only selected as a primary reason by 18.9 percent of the participants in the study. The least frequently cited reason for using gay dating apps was to build a sense of connection with the LGBT community.

When looking at all the participants in the sample together, the frequency with which men logged onto the gay dating apps was associated with greater loneliness, reduced life satisfaction, and a reduced sense of connection to the LGBT community.

Read the full story here.

Photo by Stefan Spassov on Unsplash.

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