Swipe Fatigue

Reading up on tech discourse around dating apps, I discovered that Facebook has a dating service. This was not an investigation I embarked on for my own dating purposes. It was, rather, a follow-up to an article sent by a friend who is equally compelled to critique and inspect the AI takeover we’re all subjected to—decidedly against our will.

The article that really sent me sleuthing reported on a recently shipped AI enhancement for the Meta app. Facebook Dating’s latest feature rollout seeks to address “swiping fatigue” by eliminating swiping altogether and relying solely on the discernment of its algorithm. For those unfamiliar with the emergent concept of “swiping fatigue” (you lucky niche), it’s the condition of being overwhelmed by the core dating app activity of swiping right to engage in a romantic endeavor or left to dismiss a person who’s current arrange of images and documented interests do not align with your taste. Honestly, dating apps already feel like they’ve had years to perfect connection, yet they remain missing the mark when it comes to actually facilitating it.

Allowing AI to autonomously determine who a person should match with feels like another misstep—but then again, I shouldn’t assume the business goal is to actually help people find love.

Abstracting choice from the entire process makes me wonder how these algorithms determine a person’s potential chemistry and compatibility. What criteria are being extracted from our online presence? Do I really need another reminder that people are losing touch with themselves and their desires as we continue to offload friction and inconvenience onto our technology?