By Edna Deus

Connection between people in today’s world happens mostly in the digital form. With rapid increase of different social media apps and use of emails, the world has become easier for people to meet without going outside. This has led to the rise of dating apps which has made it easier to find relationships whether platonic or romantic. However, creating a profile and swiping through potential matches brings you to the realization that payments are needed to engage with someone.
This revelation leaves you with disillusionment and disappointment.

From Tinder to Bumble and niche platforms as eHarmony, the mechanism of requiring payment just after luring in users with the promise of free access to the app or website kills all motivation
of continuing with the apps. When you download dating apps most of them are advertised as free and this prompts many to take a chance. After creating a profile, swiping, liking and messaging it
seems to feel as the best deal. This is until the limitations of your “free” membership shatters all hope of using dating apps unless you’re willing to pay for packages that are offered.

Before we dig deeper on the payment matter, we cannot neglect that dating apps have helped make connection between many people. Many relationships whether platonic or romantic have been able
to happen because of these platforms. Some of these people if asked can even say it’s worth the payments for the subscription if it would lead to a successful relationship on their end. But that’s just it, paying for the apps is still not a full proof plan because you never know if it will fail or not.

Monetization of apps is not unique in any way and so the matter is not necessary about the money but the shift of expectations. The whole process of signing for a dating app is for the hope of
meeting someone and this changes to being cornered to pay to secure your future in romance. This changes the meaningfulness of being in a genuine relationship. And subscribing does not mean that you may get your soulmate. A lot has happened in dating apps such as scams, catfishing,
ghosting and many more. This makes you wonder what if you do pay for the app but get
disappointed with it, just making you lose money for a bad experience.

Not all dating apps are deceitful though. Some show you their offers from the beginning, about what you get when you download the app and what features are supposed to be paid for. This makes it easier to know what you are walking into without being manipulated for an experience.
Yet the trend for monetizing romantic connections remains widespread, making many people distrust the process. And for those who refuse to pay, their options become very limited. They are
forced to spend time swiping and hoping to get a match and, in the end, leading to abandon the
app altogether.

The act of bringing up subscriptions while a user has no idea that the “free” part of the dating app is only for making a profile is very harsh. It shows that the deceit done by owners of these platforms
is due to their greediness. It feels like they trapped you when you sign up to meet someone but are given a choice to either pay or delete your profile. The thought of letting go your process that you
have done until that moment feels heavy, making you to start wondering if paying is the best option
to meet someone.

Either way, being let down by paywalls in dating apps goes beyond the cost itself. It’s about the realization that even when finding love, money comes first. This depresses many to discover that
the easier way to find a relationship involves a price tag. Dating should feel natural, but when you must pay to talk to someone, it starts to feel fake. And this takes the joy out of it. The disappointment lies there with commercialized structure of modern online dating.