These are the most common insecurities fueling your dating app obsession
Dating apps have become the go-to platform for people looking for love — but for some, it's fueling insecurities and enabling bad habits.
A new study, published in Computers in Human Behavior, revealed the common insecurities that could be fueling your dating app obsession.
People who are insecure about their looks, anxious about being in social settings and constantly think they're being rejected are more likely to use dating apps in a problematic way.
The research, conducted with over 5,400 young adults aged 18 to 35 in Taiwan, aimed to understand how certain psychological traits influence the way individuals interact with dating apps.
With millions of users worldwide, these platforms are more than just a casual means to meet new people—they're increasingly shaping the way young people present themselves and form relationships.
But, as this study suggests, there's a dark side to hiding behind a screen.
Researchers found that individuals who experienced high levels of anxiety — specifically about their appearance, social settings and rejection — tended to view dating apps as a helpful tool for self-presentation and relationship-building.
Because these users are often uncomfortable with face-to-face interactions and worried about their appearance, they are drawn to the relative safety and control of their dating app profile.
Dating apps allow them to curate their image and engage with others in a way that feels less intimidating.
Many participants in the study said that these apps made it easier to form connections — especially those with higher levels of anxiety.
While these perceived benefits may sound positive, they come with unexpected dangers.
Singles with higher levels of anxiety were also more likely to have problematic habits when using dating apps — like compulsively checking their messages, constantly re-evaluating their profiles, or excessively focusing on potential rejections.
These people were also more likely to report feelings of frustration or distress when their interactions on dating apps didn't go as planned.
In the worst cases, these users could develop unhealthy relationships with the apps, using them to avoid real-world social interactions, which would in turn deepen their fear of rejection.
Overall, anxious individuals do seem to benefit from the ability to manage their image and relationships digitally, making social connections easier. However, their vulnerabilities — especially rejection sensitivity— can lead to excessive reliance on these platforms, which may ultimately harm their mental health, well-being and ability to connect IRL.
Young adulthood is a critical period for developing social skills and emotional resilience, making Gen Z and millennials particularly susceptible to the consequences of using dating apps in a problematic way.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
AstraZeneca Announces $50B US Investment Amid Pharma Tariff Threat
AstraZeneca (AZN, Financials) said Monday it will invest $50 billion in the United States by 2030 to expand manufacturing and research, positioning itself ahead of potential import tariffs under President Donald Trump's administration. The British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm said the plan includes building a new manufacturing facility in Virginiaits largest single capital outlay in 26 yearsand expanding operations across Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Indiana, and Texas. The spending will also support AstraZeneca's U.S. clinical trial supply network and development of weight-loss and cardiovascular drugs. CEO Pascal Soriot unveiled the plan in Washington, calling for other countries to pay more for drugs to balance global research funding. The United States cannot build or carry the cost of R&D for the entire world, he said. The company aims to reach $80 billion in annual revenue by 2030, with half of that coming from the U.S., which already accounted for over 40% of sales in 2024. The move follows similar announcements from Roche (ROG, Financials), Eli Lilly (LLY, Financials), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Financials), Novartis (NOVN, Financials), and Sanofi (SASY, Financials). Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the plan aligns with Trump's push to reduce reliance on foreign-made drugs. Our nation's new tariff policies are focused on ending this structural weakness, he said in a statement released by the company. AstraZeneca said the investment could add tens of thousands of new jobs. The company employs around 18,000 people in the U.S. and 90,000 globally. The pledge builds on $3.5 billion in investments announced last year and comes as the company evaluates a possible shift in its stock listing from London to New York. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
2 Ways Religious Beliefs Can Impact Your Well-Being, By A Psychologist
What if religion isn't the problem or the answer in itself, but the relationship you have with it ... More is? Here's how belief impacts the brain and body. When life feels uncertain, everyone needs something to hold on to; a hope that things will get better, or perhaps the belief that you're part of something greater than yourself. That something is often faith: a steadfast trust that things will work out, even when you can't yet see how. And, hope is the emotional fuel that can keep you moving forward, no matter how heavy the present may feel. While both faith and hope can feel like mere abstract ideas, religion can make them tangible for many. This can be through rituals, stories, community and a sense of being held by something greater. Religion offers structure to believe in and a source of meaning. An April 2025 study explored the relationship between religiosity, religious orientation and sleep health. Researchers specifically looked at the roles of anxiety and depression, which are two key indicators of mental well-being that are also closely tied to sleep. Researchers collected data from over 200 adults (both religious and non-religious), using questionnaires and two-week sleep diaries. They assessed whether participants identified as religious and how they related to their faith. This relationship was understood based on whether they saw religion as a deep life purpose, a means to an end or an ongoing spiritual quest. The results reveal how deeply our beliefs and the emotional states they generate can influence both mind and body. Here are two ways religious beliefs can impact your well-being. 1. Religious Belief Can Ease Anxiety And Help You Sleep Better Sleep is often thought of as a solely physical need. However, it can be quite deeply tied to your emotional world, especially to experiences of anxiety. You may have noticed that when your mind is restless or racing, your sleep can suffer. In fact, it's quite common for people to find themselves caught in a trap of overthinking late at night. Ikea conducted a large-scale global sleep survey with over 55,000 participants. The results showed that 11% named 'overthinking' as a major barrier to sleep, alongside stress (17%) and anxiety disorders (12%). As your sleep suffers, so do many other aspects of your mental health, such as your mood, focus, energy and even emotional regulation. Over time, this can create a vicious cycle where poor sleep and chronic anxiety feed into each other, creating a loop that damages your well-being. In the April 2025 study, researchers found that religious individuals reported significantly lower levels of anxiety compared to non-religious participants. Anxiety didn't just coexist with poor sleep, but mediated the relationship between religious belief and sleep health completely. Being religious was linked to better sleep because it was linked to lower anxiety. This held true for both sleep quality and sleep efficiency. However, depression didn't play the same role. The impact of religious belief on sleep was about how calm and secure a person felt inside. Based on these findings, the real power of religious belief might lie in its ability to quiet mental overactivity. This could be through prayer, surrender or a sense of divine protection. Religion has the ability to offer a kind of emotional anchoring that may help ease emotional spirals or internal restlessness that can disrupt sleep for many. So, when the mind is calm, the body can rest. This study is a reminder that faith, when rooted in emotional safety, can be more than just spiritual. Religion, or any other form of faith that can help soothe your inner chaos, might just be the key to deeper rest. 2. How You Relate To Religion Shapes Its Impact When we think of religious beliefs, it's important to remember that they can look different for everyone. For some, it's a quiet personal truth. While for others, it's a ritual passed down through generations, or merely a space to ask deeper questions about life. The April 2025 study didn't just look at whether someone was religious. It also looked at how they related to their faith. This is what researchers referred to as 'religious orientation.' They explored three key orientations: The study found that how one relates to their faith significantly influenced their mental and sleep health. Researchers found that participants who viewed religion as an end in itself experienced lower anxiety and reported better sleep quality and efficiency. On the contrary, those who saw religion as a quest — as an ongoing, questioning approach to faith — experienced higher anxiety. This, in turn, was linked to poorer sleep efficiency, as well as to decreased sleep quality. These effects were all mediated by anxiety. This means that the emotional state influenced by one's relationship with religion played a key role in shaping sleep outcomes. This study highlights that belief isn't always comforting by default. It's a truly supportive factor when it feels more personally meaningful and emotionally settled. While doubt and questioning are natural parts of any spiritual journey, when they linger without resolution, they may actually add to mental strain. Let this be a reminder to reflect on how you engage with your faith and whether it brings clarity or confusion. This can be an important step not just in your spiritual life, but in your overall well-being. Faith And Fear Can Change The Way You Experience Life Faith can offer inner grounding in a world of chaos. When anchored in genuine trust, it can change the way you move through life's challenges and help soften fear. Remember that fear, in essence, is just faith turned inside out and an inner belief in things going wrong. So, when fear drives your thoughts, religion or any sort of inclination in faith can provide belief in possibilities. This shift alone can change not just how you feel, but also what you're able to choose and create in your life in any given moment. In the long run, this shift can change everything. A fearful mind only narrows your vision and convinces you that your options are limited, even when they aren't. When led by fear, you may stop looking for solutions because you've already decided none exist. But faith has the power to allow you to see what can be done, and pay attention to how things can work out, even if not right away. That said, while it may be tempting to use faith as a constant emotional safety net, you must remember not to let it become a form of bypass — or something you reach for just to avoid discomfort. True faith can help you be prepared to meet life with strength and softness alike. Wondering how your sensitivity to anxiety might be shaping your perspective and sleep? Take this science-backed test to find out: Anxiety Sensitivity Test
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Study: Lost weight rebounds quickly after stopping weight-loss jabs
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways Doctors around the world have been hailing "miracle" medications that make weight loss far easier, but new research suggests that after a person stops taking certain drugs, the weight tends to increase again rather quickly. People who received the medication lost significant weight during the therapy, and this even continued to a small extent for a few weeks after stopping the medication, according to a research team led by Han Wu and Wenjia Yang from Peking University People's Hospital. However, from the eighth week after the end of therapy, researchers said there was a marked weight gain that persisted for many weeks. The extent of weight gain varies depending on the medication and lifestyle changes, according to the study, but there is a clear trend towards weight gain after stopping the medication. This confirms existing findings, according to Stephan Martin, chief physician for diabetology and director of the West German Diabetes and Health Centre at the Association of Catholic Clinics in Düsseldorf, Germany. He said that some manufacturers of the medications had also demonstrated this themselves through randomized studies. Test subjects were given the active substances for 10 weeks, after which some were switched to a placebo. This group "then continuously regained weight," Martin reported. In the current study, the researchers from Beijing also referred to an investigation in which people who had completed a 36-week treatment with the active substance tirzepatide (GLP-1-RA) regained about half of the weight they had previously lost within a year of switching to a placebo. The newly published meta-analysis summarised the results of 11 independent studies from around the world, including those on the drug orlistat, the combinations naltrexone/bupropion and phentermine/topiramate, as well as the group of GLP-1 receptor agonists. The data came from a total of 1,574 people in treatment groups and 893 in control groups. GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1-RA) are included in popular medications such as Wegovy and Ozempic. In some countries, they are approved for type 2 diabetes and some cases of obesity, and they are known as lifestyle drugs for achieving a slim figure. These active substances, which are injected regularly, primarily prolong the time food stays in the digestive tract, thereby increasing the feeling of satiety. Side effects include gastrointestinal complaints. One aspect of the study stands out: Those who initially experienced significant weight loss during therapy tended to regain more weight afterwards, even if they participated in programmes to change their lifestyle, such as eating and exercise habits. "This does not surprise me," says Anja Hilbert, professor of behavioural medicine at Germany's Leipzig University Hospital. Similar experiences are seen, for example, in people who follow a very low-calorie diet — they also tend to regain more weight after the diet ends than those who undergo moderate calorie limits. However, the expert noted that there were only a few participants for this aspect of the study. "The results of the study actually suggest that long-term, perhaps even lifelong use of the medication may be necessary to stabilise weight," Hilbert says. "It is a long-term therapy," diabetologist Martin emphasizes. Anyone who believes they can lose weight with this therapy and then everything will be fine is mistaken. "You need this therapy permanently." Some in the US health care system have raised concerns that many people may not be aware of this or may accept it. According to studies, two-thirds of people treated for obesity, most of whom pay for the treatment themselves, stopped using the medication within a year. "We don't know why: Maybe it becomes too expensive, maybe they have lost enough weight and believe it will now stay off," says Martin, who advocates for more overweight prevention rather than treating the consequences.
