I have myself attempted to use matchmaking apps for meeting people, primarily in the sense of friendships. Here I have been able to connect with people in the city I live in, or a city I might be visiting. These apps allow you to share your interests and write about yourself so that you can find other, likeminded people. The most famous apps are primarily made for dating, however, since they first became known to me I have seen them gradually implementing features to help you look just for friends as well. There are also complete separate apps focused on making friends.
The Meet-up-problem
The problem with regular matchmaking apps is that you have to arrange the meetup yourself. There are limited functions that “force” this activity. What can happen then is that people will chat and get to know each other online before deciding if this is someone you would like to meet. In such, people are able to create online connections from their homes, without having to put the time and effort into arranging a meetup. This can seem positive, but it also has the negative effect that you might not get to know the person fully. You might be thrown off by certain text messages, without properly understanding what they meant. This way you might stop keeping up contact without someone and never actually meet. In order to actually meet it requires effort, at least one person needs to take the initiative and ask. Whether or not a person initiates this is very individual, some may not feel fully secure, others might feel not that interested anymore after talking, timing & schedules might be a problem, and so on.
The picture problem
All apps allow for some sort of image sharing, often about 6 images. This is an opportunity to show more of your identity, what you usually get up to, etc. The problem, like with any other social media, is that one often risks portraying life better, more interesting, and picture perfect than it actually is. Just like messages, images can also easily be misinterpreted and can throw people off. When it comes to dating, where looks might be important for some, images where people portray their best side might give higher expectations than reality. However, images can create a little sense of safety as you can see more of who this person is. Although in today’s day and age, this sense of safety does not reach far, as one is never guaranteed to not get catfished. Seeing the progress of AI these days, it will definitely become even easier to create false images.
