Ask any single twenty-something with a smartphone whether or not they’ve downloaded a dating app and their answer will probably be “yes”. In fact, Tinder alone has over 50 million unique users who claim to swipe their life away at an average of 90 minutes per day. “Why all the hype?” many outsiders wonder, “What ever happened to a good old-fashioned night at the bar?”

Dating apps make it easy

People are gravitating more and more towards apps in search of sexual encounters for one reason: apps make getting laid unbearably easy. For decades, people have been going to bars in search of casual sex only to leave disappointed (for the most part, anyway). With shattered dreams and an empty wallet they stagger home to watch porn, as finding no-strings-attached sex seems to be out of the question.

Dating apps, however, have changed the game completely. On Tinder, users can find someone to share a meaningless hook-up with in just a matter of minutes. The need for lengthy profile descriptions has been replaced with a simple profile picture, age, and name, and users express their attraction to one another with a quick swipe of their finger. Dating apps such as these bring hundreds of casual encounters to their users’ fingertips every day, offering more opportunity than face to face interaction could provide. One could compare it to the way we order in food. A tap here, a swipe there, and either the delivery guy or a booty call can be at your door within minutes.

But have dating apps made hooking up too easy?

Many argue that dating apps are ruining the idea of romantic relationships altogether. This is a valid point, as the young men who use these apps are starting to see relationships as more of a “short-term” thing due to the fact that they always hundreds more potential partners within reach. On the other hand, women are frustrated by this. It seems that even though they’re presented with the same opportunities, they still favor the idea of a loving, stable relationship.

In fact, some young ladies even claim that they have “given up” on finding love, as the rise of hook up culture and dating apps seems to have made men more unreliable, rude, and in some cases, downright vulgar than ever before. The vulgarity is most present over the screens of their smartphone, as it is common practice for a man to greet a woman by asking if she’d like to “ride his face”. Women often close their dating apps feeling repulsed and awkward, to say the least.

We’ve become hooked on hooking up

Most men in their twenties seem to be all over the idea of dating apps, but many claim that they’d never pursue a real relationship with a woman they found on one of these apps. Strangely, these same men also claim that they lack real intimacy in their lives. So why are they so hooked on hooking up?

It’s probably due to the fact that dating apps can be highly addictive. The idea that you can have someone hot and ready at your door whenever you feel like it, and for free, sure is a captivating one. Dating apps are also great for providing an immediate confidence boost to those with self-esteem issues. Receiving instant confirmation that someone you find attractive thinks the same of you is great for the ego, and especially if this confirmation is just a quick swipe away.

So where does it end?

While dating apps are doing a wonderful job of catering to all the twenty-somethings looking for casual sex, the hype is bound to come to an end at some point. We as a species value intimacy and authenticity in relationships, which dating apps seem to seldom deliver. Once the twenty-somethings go in search of something a little more meaningful than their daily hook up, they’ll probably have to put their phones down to meet people in a more noble way. Rest assured, good old-fashioned online dating platforms like Match and eHarmony will be ready and waiting for when this time comes.