Dating in 2025 is a minefield. Everywhere you turn, you're met with unresolved trauma, emotional baggage, or self-destructive behavior. What was once a straightforward path to connection has become a labyrinth of complexities, especially for Generation Z.
Technology, while ostensibly making it easier to meet people, has introduced new barriers to genuine intimacy and understanding. The convenience of dating apps and online platforms has led to a paradox where increased connectivity results in decreased meaningful interactions. A study published in Computers in Human Behavior reveals that psychological insecurities, particularly about appearance and social anxiety, are a main driver in the problematic use of dating apps among young adults. This reliance on digital interactions can exacerbate insecurity and hinder real-world social development, particularly in younger generations...
.....They default to apps, to screens, to isolation. Real-life interaction has become a liability. Better to stay silent than be called a predator. Better to swipe than risk humiliation.
And what does that create? A generation of young adults who don’t know how to connect. Relationships become rare; honesty becomes dangerous; intimacy becomes a liability.
OnlyFans on one gender. Porn addiction on the other. A generation divided by the very thing forecast to bring us closer -- social media. Add a layer of digital shaming and you’ve built a society of emotionally numbed, physically isolated people who have learned to fear each other more than they desire each other.
We’ve replaced traditional dating norms with distrust and dopamine loops.
To fix this, we need to bolster young men’s confidence in their purpose -- to provide and protect, encourage young men to initiate, and stop treating male attention as predatory by default. Likewise, we need to train young women in feminine drive, remind women that intimacy isn’t meant to be broadcast or sold to strangers, but rather to be shared with the person who's earned your trust, and engage the female drive for home and family. Stop telling young men their purpose is solely money, and for heaven’s sake stop telling young women the same thing! We all know that relationship is key -- but we aren’t raising younger generations with that understanding, so they’re lost.
Dating shouldn’t feel like war. But right now, for Gen Z, it often does. It’s time we fix that.
