Latest news with #datingapps
CNET
5 hours ago
- CNET
Tea Is in Apple's Top Free Apps, but What Is It and Why Is Everyone Talking About It?
Ask any single woman, and they'll probably tell you how rough the dating world is. From ghosting to misleading bios, it can be challenging to know who you're really chatting to on dating apps, and whether they're telling the truth about themselves. Tea is an app that allows women to anonymously review men and spill "the tea" on men they've dated. About 1 million women have started using the app in the past week. It's reminiscent of those Facebook "Are We Dating the Same Guy?" groups that many cities have, except this app uses AI to verify that the people making profiles are women. Tea has become a viral sensation in the last few weeks -- for good and bad reasons. The app experienced a security breach -- revealed last Friday -- in which data, including women's driver's licenses and selfies, was posted to 4chan. The breach is reportedly the result of Tea's unsecured database. The company confirmed to CNET that unauthorized access to its systems had occurred. What is the Tea app? Tea is a free, women-only app exclusive to the US. It's not a dating app; it's a tool that women use in addition to their dating apps. It's a space where you can share negative interactions while dating and solicit feedback on specific men you date to expose potential risks and protect other women. It was founded in 2023 by Sean Cook, who cites his mother getting catfished online as the motivation for the app. Tea has taken off in the past week, gaining more than a million users in that time. According to a social media post from Tea, the app has about 4 million users. It's the second most popular free app in the Apple App Store right now, right after ChatGPT. Tea is intended to function as a community that keeps women safe, something that traditional dating apps lack. With candid reviews and warnings from other women about people they've dated, Tea offers women the security of having a better idea of who they're dating. When you open the app, you'll see local men in your area whose pictures have been uploaded. You'll also see if the man was labeled as a red or green flag, and any comments left by other women. You can look up specific names in the search bar and create alerts for names. The app's capabilities aren't limited to comments about a man's "red flags." Tea can also reverse-search photos to catch catfishers through Tea's Catfish Finder AI, run background checks, check for criminal histories and public records and look up phone numbers. Additionally, you can post questions and polls on the Tea app. According to Tea's website, 10% of its profits go to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. How does Tea know if I'm a woman? Not just anyone can join the Tea app -- it's for women only. When you make an account, you'll be asked to provide your location, birth date and a picture of your ID or a selfie to verify that you're a woman. Then you wait to be approved, which people are saying can take days from the influx of new users. The Tea app uses AI to verify your identity and ensure you're a woman. Once approved, you're anonymous apart from the username you choose. Tea uses SafeSip AI as a moderation tool that detects and removes harmful content from the app to ensure it stays a safe space for women. Can I join Tea if I'm not a woman? You can't join the Tea app if you're not a woman. However, uploading a picture to ensure you're a woman is far from a bulletproof way to ensure only women join the app. With filters or AI tools, it's not clear how often Tea catches things like that. What are the security risks of Tea? Tea presents as a safe space to share information because you can't screenshot in the app, you're anonymous and it's verified that all accounts are women. However, the data breach shows us just how fragile something like this can be. Tea confirmed last week that there was unauthorized access to its legacy data storage system. Approximately 72,000 images were exposed, including 13,000 images of selfies and photo identification women submitted to make an account, and 59,000 images publicly viewable in the app from posts, comments and direct messages. Tea told CNET that the company has engaged third-party cybersecurity experts to secure its systems. The concept of Tea is to keep women safe and give them a space to share negative experiences so that others don't have to go through the same thing. However, there has also been backlash about whether the app violates men's privacy. On forums like Reddit, some men have shared that posts about them on the app have been false or misleading, and because they're not allowed on the app, they cannot engage to correct the posts. In the same way that it could be a safe place for women to share information to keep each other safe, it could potentially become a space where misinformation runs rampant and personal information is shared. Tea didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the potential for misinformation being spread on its platform, or of the allegations of privacy violations against men. We have also asked Tea whether the platform is heterosexually geared only.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Singles are falling out of love with dating apps
life and society 16 minutes ago Singles are falling out of love with online dating apps, meaning a return to real world introductions, and for some younger daters that's a totally new experience. Match group, the US tech company that owns Tinder, Hinge and OK Cupid saw a 5% drop in paid users in the first quarter of this year. Relationship expert Jess Carbino, who was the sociologist for the dating apps Tinder and Bumble said Gen Z is using apps less. She spoke to Lisa Owen.
Independent Singapore
2 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Independent Singapore
Want to scare off men on dating apps? Just say you don't want kids
SINGAPORE: In the frenetic world of dating apps, an unassuming profile update can spur unexpectedly profound conversations about experiential decisions and life choices. One Singaporean female recently found this out the moment she altered her dating profile to include four intrepid words: 'Looking for DINK partner.' DINK – short for 'Dual Income, No Kids.' This isn't just a financial arrangement, but a way of life. Her profile used to perk up with responses and notifications from interested matches, but immediately after she made clear her penchant for a child-free future, the buzz slackened to a near-halt. 'Is it true that most guys want kids?' she asked Reddit, perplexed by the sudden drop in interest. 'Living in Singapore for two is hard enough. Having one more sounds challenging.' Her experience struck a nerve, and a torrent of reactions flowed in from men. Their viewpoints mirrored that the story behind this trend is a lot more complicated than a simple 'yes' or 'no' to having children. A question of expectations 'For me personally, no,' one Redditor wrote, 'but I think I'm in the minority. There's social pressure on men to feel like they need to be a father and build a family to be seen as successful.' The netizen went on to add that men may nonchalantly say they want children, but that's frequently without truthfully understanding the physical and emotional cost, costs that excessively fall on women. See also Ahn Jae-hyun withdraws from TV series following marital mess Another Redditor weighed in with a self-aware slant: 'We don't have to go through the actual difficult parts like pregnancy, childbirth, and the risk of career loss. It's easy to say we want kids when we won't be the ones giving up so much.' The lifestyle trade-off However, not everybody in that conversation carries the banner of conventional family life. Several Redditors said that while they weren't wholly against having children, they weren't keen on compromising their present lives or mental well-being for the sake of fatherhood. 'I think having kids is a lifestyle change I'm not ready for,' wrote a man in his 30s. 'Not in the near future at least… So, the logical conclusion I came to is DINK.' Another added frankly, 'Wanted, but couldn't afford. Now happily married without.' Also, even younger netizens, in their early 20s, resonated with the same concerns. One commenter said he and his partner had decided not to have children, not because they didn't like the idea or just hate kids, but because they think the emotional and financial costs didn't seem worth it. 'I want to retire earlier, and if I ever make S$15k to S$25k a month, then maybe I'd reconsider.' The emotional baggage of parenthood A few commenters explored deeper into their personal history to explain their standpoint. One Redditor shared that he had been open with his partner from day one — no kids, ever. The reasons were a combination of personal ordeal and pragmatism. 'I grew up in a toxic family,' he wrote. 'I'm still unlearning some toxic traits. It just doesn't sit right with me to be a parent when I can't even handle myself adequately yet.' For him, having a child in his life at a time when he hadn't yet overcome his childhood trauma is irresponsible. Another netizen said that he didn't want his kid to get the same unbearable housing expenses: 'I don't like the idea of my hypothetical kid needing to pay potentially S$1 million for a four-room HDB.' Parenthood as a choice, not a default What's obvious from the discussion is that a rising number of Singaporeans are starting to question the instinctive concept that parenthood is 'a must.' While the traditional expectations still run deep, there's a silent change taking place — a reframing of achievement, closeness, and what it means to build a life together. See also The big 40: A memorable birthday bash for superstar JJ Lin One Redditor wrapped it up seamlessly: 'If I want to play with kids, I'll go visit my sister's or a friend's, but raising one? That's a commitment I'm not willing to take lightly.' In a city as hectic and costly as Singapore, the DINK existence isn't just a movement; it's an echo of shifting priorities. It appears that love doesn't always come with a baby carriage or a high chair.
CTV News
3 days ago
- Health
- CTV News
Here's why teens don't belong on dating apps
Nearly one-in-four teens ages 13 through 18 have used dating apps, according to the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. (Julio Lopez/Pexels) Teenagers are using dating apps more than we previously knew, according to research published this week in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. The study found that 23.5 per cent of teens ages 13 through 18 used dating apps over a six-month period, which is more than past estimates. The study is believed to be the first to track how teens use dating apps by recording their keyboard activity rather than relying on self-reports, according to the researchers. The study found that teens who used dating apps didn't generally have more symptoms of mental health challenges after six months than those who didn't. However, those who used dating apps frequently were more likely to have symptoms of major depressive disorders. 'This study showed some support for dating app users having greater depressive symptoms and greater engagement in risky behaviors,' said Lilian Li, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and the study's lead author. It's unclear whether that's because the dating app users were harmed on the apps through things such as exposure to harassment or risky behaviors, Li said, or whether those who were depressed used dating apps because they had trouble connecting with others. Li cautioned that the study was small — it included 149 teens in the United States, 35 of whom used dating apps. And because it only tracked keyboard entries, it wasn't able to measure things such as lurking or liking and disliking profiles. There's still reason for parents to be concerned, because dating apps could also be harming kids in other ways. That's why, when I speak to parents and students about how to handle kids' use of apps, I suggest that teenagers not use online dating platforms at all. Teens can connect with predators online One reason I don't think teens belong on dating apps is because they're dangerous. Researchers have warned that registered sex offenders freely use online dating sites. Online dating particularly raises the risk of teens being catfished, manipulated into an emotional relationship with someone using an assumed identity. That creates the opportunity for the other person to convince the teen to share an intimate image, which can then be used for financial extortion or to pressure the victim into further exploitation. Wolf Image The dating app Tinder logo (Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Photographer: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/) These risks make dating apps dangerous for adults but even more so for teenagers, because the teenage brain is wired to accept greater risks in the pursuit of rewards, according to the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent. That's why it didn't surprise me that the new research found that teens who engaged in other risky behaviors, such as using substances and breaking rules, were more likely to use dating apps. We can't expect teenagers to consider that the person they think is their new boyfriend or girlfriend might actually be an adult cybercriminal. Teens also can't be expected to think through the potential consequences if they decide to meet up in person with someone they connected with online. 'Minors are not permitted on our dating apps, full stop,' said a spokesperson for the Match Group, which owns Tinder, the most-used dating app among teens in the study. 'Our platforms are for adults 18 and older, and we deploy industry-leading technology and human oversight to keep underage users off them. Our brands deploy sophisticated safety tools including AI-powered age verification, ID verification, and device blocking, as well as human moderators to proactively detect and remove minors and bad actors. 'We work with longstanding partners like THORN to enhance safety measures and, this year, supported the founding of ROOST, a nonprofit focused on building scalable tools for child safety. We continue to invest in cutting-edge tools, technology, and partnerships to help ensure our platforms remain safe for the communities we serve.' The spokesperson also noted that the Match Group offers a safety tool to conduct background checks on users and that the statistics in the new research include social discovery apps, which are different from dating apps. Dating apps don't teach teens to have healthy relationships The problem is not just that dating apps are dangerous, which they can be. They can also send the wrong signals to young people about human relationships. If you want to establish and maintain a relationship with someone in person, you generally have to learn things like how to have a two-way conversation, show consideration for the other person and even resolve disagreements that might come up. Grindr A phone screen shows multiple apps, including Grindr, a dating app for gay men. These are all skills that teens need to practice and which will serve them well in many aspects of their lives. They'll not only help youth deal with people such as future professors and employers but will likely make them happier over the long run. Close relationships are even more important for our happiness than things such as money or fame and are also important to our health, Harvard University researchers found in one of the longest studies of adults ever conducted. In interviews for my book, people told me they felt dating app users invest less in the relationships they form with their 'matches' because the apps convey the impression that there are always more people available to swipe on. 'If someone upsets you for the smallest reason, you can go to a dating app and find someone else,' one woman told me. So teens are learning they can walk away from dating apps feeling like romantic partners are easily obtained and let go, rather than learning to refine skills to maintain close offline relationships. There are other ways to meet their needs To start conversations about these concerns, parents should check in with teens on whether they're using or want to use dating apps. If teens say yes, it's an opportunity to consider how they can meet their needs in other ways. For example, if teens are lonely or want to find a romantic partner, one of the best things we can do is let them get together with peers in person. They can connect with friends and even potential romantic partners who share similar interests by signing up for extracurricular activities. It is also an important way of helping teens feel like they matter, which is one of the best means for promoting well-being. The new study found that dating apps may give teens who are sexual and gender minorities in their communities ways of making valuable social connections. It would be even better, however, for parents to explore how such teens can make those connections by meeting up with the kinds of people they want to know face-to-face. Some teens may also want to use dating apps because some platforms have suggested they have algorithms that can match people with their soulmates — or at least compatible romantic partners. However, decades of research tells us this isn't possible, because it turns out that people's personality traits don't actually predict whether they'll do well as a couple. Prepare teens for using dating apps in the future Still, 30 per cent of Americans have used a dating app or site at some point, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, so it's possible that your teen will find a way to evade your rules against using them now or will use one in the future. That's why you should talk to teens about how to stay safe on dating apps if they do use them at any point in their lives. I recommend video chatting with people before meeting up in person to confirm that they appear to be who they say they are, meeting in public places, telling loved ones where you're meeting, telling the person you're meeting that your loved ones know where you are, and not being alone with someone until you're confident you can trust them. I know parents think their children would never use a dating app or go meet a stranger they only know online. But since this new research suggests teens are using these apps more than parents may realize, it's best to be prepared. Whether teens are just breaking your rules or getting into trouble online, they are missing out on learning to establish healthy relationships face-to-face. That's why parents should talk to teens now about these concerns, helping them get their dating lives started on the right track instead of merely swiping right.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
AI Slop Might Finally Cure Our Internet Addiction
The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Finding love is hard. For a while, dating apps seemed to make it easier, putting a city's worth of single people in the palm of your hand. But AI has cast a paranoid pall over what can already be a suboptimal experience. If you get a message that feels a little off, it is hard to know whether you are flirting with a bot—or just someone insecure enough to use ChatGPT as their own Cyrano de Bergerac. In frustration, my friend Lonni has started picking up women at the nail salon like it's 1997. Or, in the midst of an emotionally fraught conversation with a friend or family member, a text might read strangely. Is the person on the other end using AI to compose their messages about the fairness of Aunt Beryl's will or the future of your relationship? The only way to find out is to call them or, better yet, meet them for a coffee. Or maybe you want to learn something. Many of the internet's best resources for getting everyday answers are quickly being inundated with the dubious wisdom of AI. YouTube, long a destination for real people who know how to repair toilets, make omelets, or deliver engaging cultural criticism, is getting less human by the day: The newsletter Garbage Day reports that four of May's top 10 YouTube channels were devoted to AI-generated content. Recently, the fastest-growing channel featured AI babies in dangerous situations, for some reason. Reddit is currently overrun with AI-generated posts. Even if you never use ChatGPT or other large language models directly, the rest of the internet is sodden with their output and with real people parroting their hallucinations. Remember: LLMs are still often wrong about basic facts. It is enough to make a person crack a book. The internet's slide toward AI happened quickly and deliberately. Most major platforms have integrated the technology whether users want it or not, just at the moment that some AI photos and videos have become indistinguishable from reality, making it that much harder to trust anything online. Over time, LLMs might get more accurate, or people might simply get better at spotting their tells. In the meantime, a real possibility is that people will turn to the real world as a more trustworthy alternative. We've been telling one another to 'touch grass' for years now, all while downloading app- and website-blocking software and lockable phone safes to try to wean ourselves off constant internet use. Maybe the AI-slop era will actually help us log off. Even before AI started taking over, the internet had been getting less and less fun for a while. Users have been complaining about Google Search degrading for years. Opening an app to get a ride, order takeout, or find a vacation house can be just as expensive and effortful as taking a taxi, calling in a delivery order, or booking a hotel once was. Social media is a grotesque, tragedy-exploiting, MechaHitler-riddled inferno. Where going online once evoked a wide-eyed sense that the world was at our fingertips, now it requires wading into the slop like weary, hardened detectives, attempting to parse the real from the fake. Nevertheless, as AI companies build browsers and devices that keep users tidily contained in an endless conversation with their own personalized AIs, some people may spend more time online than ever. Its accuracy aside, AI is already valued by many for entertainment, practical help, and emotional support. In some extreme cases, users are falling in love with chatbots or drifting into all-consuming spiritual delusions, but many more are simply becoming thoroughly addicted. The internet's new era may push AI skeptics to spend less time online, while another group ramps up their AI-mediated screen time. That split might have implications for the internet's culture—and the culture at large. Even for those who run from the slop, the internet is already so woven into every part of our lives that going cold turkey is pretty much impossible. But as it gets worse, the real world starts to look pretty good in comparison, with its flesh-and-blood people with whom we can establish trust, less overwhelming number of consumer options, slower pace, and occasional moments of unpredictable delight that do not create financial profit for anyone. I have been experimenting with being less online since 2022, when I quit Twitter. As soon as I got through withdrawal, I could feel my attention span start to expand. I started reading books again. Like a lot of people who left social media, more of my socializing moved over to group chats with people I actually know and in-person get-togethers: quick coffees and camping trips and dinner parties. Remember dinner parties? Later, I quit shopping online, and soon realized that I didn't need most of what I had been buying. The majority of the stuff I actually did need, I could get at the grocery store and my local hardware store, which, like most hardware stores, carries tons of things besides wrenches and bolts. Online shopping might have once been more convenient than schlepping to a store, but I think that's no longer true in many cases. Last winter, when my feet were chronically cold under my desk, I could have spent hours researching space heaters online, trying to guess which reviews were real and which were fake; placed an order online; possibly received a broken or substandard unit; and then had to package it back up and take it to some random third-party store in a return process designed to be annoying. Instead, I walked to the hardware store. 'We have one that oscillates and one that doesn't,' the guy in the vest told me. I took the one that oscillates. It works fine. I am not, I hasten to say, completely offline. Like most people, my job requires me to use the internet. But I am online less. And I am happier for it. I get outside more. I garden and read more books. I still follow the news, but less compulsively. Spending some parts of my day without my attention being monetized or my data being harvested is a nice bonus. It makes me feel kind of like a line-dried bedsheet smells. I find myself dreaming about additional returns to offline existence. I live in Portland, Oregon, where we still have lots of movie theaters and even a video-rental place. I could—I might—cancel all my streaming services and just rent stuff and watch movies at the theater. I could even finally assuage my guilt over the lousy way music-streaming services pay musicians and avoid being fooled by AI bands by going back to CDs and records—and by seeing more artists play live. I don't think I'll be the only one reorienting toward physical media and physical presence: books and records, live theater and music, brick-and-mortar stores with knowledgeable salespeople, one long conversation with one real person instead of 300 short interactions with internet strangers who might be robots. Tech companies may assume that the public is so habituated—or even addicted—to doing everything online that people will put up with any amount of risk or unpleasantness to continue to transact business and amuse themselves on the internet. But there is a limit to what at least some of us will take, especially when the alternative has real appeal. One recent study shows that disconnecting your phone from the internet creates a mood boost on par with pharmaceutical antidepressants. And if more people explore offline alternatives—at least until this whole generative-AI explosion works itself out—it could create a feedback loop, livening up cities and communities, which then become a more tempting alternative to screens. What the internet will become in a post-AI world is anybody's guess. Maybe it'll finally become something transcendent. Or maybe, as the conspiracy theory goes, it is already dead. Article originally published at The Atlantic
