What is your Dating App Experience?
Joshua Xiong, an experienced dating app user, is readily aware of the risks that can occur when going digital to meet new people. Identifying as gender fluid, Xiong has experience with various dating apps including Tinder, Bumble, OKcupid, Grindr, Her and Wild.
“There's a difference in the platform and how you present yourself online,” Xiong said. “And of course, there are definitely ones that are more for hookups, but all of my dating apps have been more of like open to dates, open to friendship and open to hooking up or if I do click them very well, I'm kind of more of a casual relationship with them, with my partners.”
There are a handful of reasons why a person ‘swipes right’ when engaging in an online dating app—to strike up a friendly conversation, to look for their next significant other, or more commonly, to find a potential ‘hook-up.’
The culture of dating apps has largely become a quick, easy way to find sexual encounters. The ‘hook-up’ culture of these dating apps has created a growing concern to health officials whether they are connected to the continued rise in STD cases.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2018 press release, the United States diagnosed nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in 2017 alone—now surpassing the 2016 record by 200,000 cases. Gonorrhea reached 555,608 cases in 2017 and syphilis at 30,6444. According to data obtained by the CDC, women and men younger than 25 have the highest STD rates.
The California Department of Public Health reported Los Angeles county having a nearly 14,000 STD case increase since 2013, with numbers steadily increasing.
The increasing number of STD cases could have a correlation with the popularity of dating apps. Dating apps became popular around 2013 and allowed people to become users as young a 17-years-old. According to Statista, 18- to 24-year-olds are the highest number of users on Tinder at 35 percent.
“Young people are vulnerable to STDs due to biological, behavioral and structural factors,” said a representative from the California Department of Public Health--Office of Public Affairs. “Over half of chlamydia cases and a third of gonorrhea cases are among young people under age 25. Youth face barriers to receiving quality sexual health information and barriers to seeking medical care.”
Dr. Sara Twogood, USC professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology said younger women in the twenties are at a higher risk factor of getting diagnosed with an STD.
“That's a pretty universal agreement that younger women are, are more likely to have a sexually transmitted infection. I think it's a lot of reasons,” Twogood said. “…maybe younger women aren't as proactive about using condoms if they're either embarrassed about using them or shy about asking their partner to use them…they may be experimenting a little bit more and having multiple sexual partners and then their sexual partners are also having multiple sexual partners.”
Xiong knows how easy it can be to have multiple sex partners from a dating app, but he found a solution that helps him stay safe.
“When I'm in that environment of a closed room or something,” Xiong said. “Usually with them I always ask, ‘when's the last time they got tested? Do they practice safe sex? Do they use condoms?’”
In a survey by the CDPH, it was found that sexual safety is not very common among young people, nor are they properly informed about safe sex practices.
“There is evidence that many young people still face barriers to getting and using condoms, and that condoms are not always used consistently or correctly,” a CDPH representative said. “Young people (and many adults) have the misconception that they will know it if they have an STD due to symptoms, but most STDs have no signs or symptoms.”
Twogood believes the rise of STDs is connected to the ‘hook-up’ culture of dating apps. However, she and various dating apps don’t believe the apps are responsible for the rise of STD cases.
Dating apps are commonly used to find potential sexual partners, and given the nature of these how these apps are used, there is debate whether apps should do more to encourage safe sex among its users.
According to a Vox article, “Tinder and Grindr don’t want to talk about their role in rising STDs,” the National Health Service in the UK is putting pressure on major dating apps such as Tinder and Grindr, “to advertise places that provide free (or affordable) condoms.” Certain health advocates feel that the United States isn’t doing enough to pressure dating apps to promote safe sex.
“Bumble currently isn’t doing anything actively to my knowledge,” Bumble representative, Jessica Carbino said. “No other dating apps, to my knowledge, are engaging in an active campaign or a public health organization to promote safe sex.”
Carbino questions who is responsible for promoting these safe sex behaviors.
“Is it a public health department of a city or a county,” she said. “Is it a dating app?”
What do students and experts have to say?
A Tinder user, who wishes to remain anonymous due to the nature of the topic, shares her perspective on the conversation.
“I don’t think responsibility in its strict legal sense lies in the hands of dating companies, but I do think apps should be more socially conscience and promote safety any way they can.”
Another anonymous Tinder user explained that through scrolling, she has come across hotel ads but has never seen an ad that promotes safe sex.
Most dating apps do not contain sexual health content for its users. Carbino suggests that dating apps work directly with the Department of Public Health to find ways to help promote safe sex.
Grindr, the dating app whose core base consists of young gay men, launched a new notification system that now sends out friendly HIV testing reminders to its users every three to six months.
“It is critical for sexually active individuals to get regularly tested,” said CDPH.
Despite the question of whether dating apps should do more to promote safe sex to its users, the question still remains: is there a correlation between dating apps and the rise of STDs?
“Online dating apps are not the altering substance that cause people to suddenly behave differently in terms of their sexual behaviors,” she said. “People who use these apps are not going to suddenly decide ‘I am going to be more likely or less likely to use a condom, or birth control, or whatever kind of contraceptive they use to protect themselves from STDs than they would be if they met someone at a bar.”
“I find the association with the rise of STDs being attributed to online dating app usage to be unfounded and problematic,” Carbino said. “I think that people are not thinking about the underlying causes of STDs or STIs.”
Doctors and experts aren’t convinced that there is one underlying cause to the rise of STDs, but rather multiple. The digital dating age has led speculation to dating apps and the ‘hook-up' culture, but health officials are convinced it may be a result of three factors: lack of sex-education, inadequate healthcare and 'hook-up' culture.