Why Dating Apps Slowly Destroy Your Self-Worth

When Joachim heard the doorbell ring, he jumped, but he understood who it was and probably what she had to say.

No updates on Dating Line or her social media in a week.

They had talked about Fredric sometimes and their breakup.

Just briefly.

It wasn’t something she wanted to discuss in depth.

So he probably thought as much as Fredric did.

If she chose him, their experiment would be over.

No sane guy would allow his girl to conduct dating experiments while they were together.

And with that decision, he could kiss his job at Q goodbye and with it the whole idea of PlaynDate .

But maybe that wasn’t the worst part.

The past week had only been marked by that gap growing into a chasm that was now a ravine.

He hadn’t even met her and he felt so much now that it hurt so much in his stomach and that he couldn’t work.

What had she done to him?

How could she even do that to him?

He opened the door and there she stood.

The hair was wet with rain like in a bad movie, but it wasn’t a movie.

Oh, imagine if it had just been a movie.

“We need to talk,” she said, and he showed her inside.

“I have met Fredric again and I have taken him back.” She took his hand and it froze like fire and burned like ice.

“That means I have to stop the experiment.”

Later he would remember it as a ship that he had waved off at the shore when he first saw it, sailing farther and farther away.

And with those words, the ship finally disappeared beyond the horizon as the sun set, casting the forests deep and dark.

“If we cancel it…”

“…then we won’t get any grades.

I know.

I’ll talk to our examiner.

You’ll get your grade.

I promise.”

“That’s not how it works, Nikki.

I thought you were just friends now.” he said, and by that he meant so much more than she knew.

“This is how it has to work.

I have to do this.

I am so sorry.

I hope I can make this right someday, but right now, this is what has to happen.”

“You’re letting me down,” he simply said, releasing her hand.

“I want you to go.”

“Joachim.”

He walked over to the computer and with a few clicks he had deleted G8KeyPR and her app.

“You are free,” he simply said.

“Go now.”

She looked at his back and when he turned around she was no longer there.

He lay on the bed with his face up towards the ceiling and then down towards the covers and rivers of emotion ran down his skin and fabric from so much that was now flowing in salt and wetness.

Maybe the real problem was never love — only the way people searched for it.