There's the real problem. Most of the women I know who use apps hate them, too. The incentive structure around dating apps is terrible, and from what I can tell, it's deepening the already ridiculous polarization of gender. Men and women alike reduce eachother to the worst stereotypes, and their dating preferences get twisted into cynicism and materialism contrary to previously-held moral stances.
If you think the problem is that women have it easy, I've gotta question if you have friends that are women. The problem is the loss of Third Places, which creates a market that dating apps monopolize.
Craigslist Personals was also fun. Until it got taken down.
The late 90's through early 2000's internet was way better for meeting people online.
Right? I made quite a few friends and even a couple of romantic partners on forums and BBSs. For what it's worth, I've seen this happen (tactfully!) on facebook (before they decided that they needed to be a dating site too -_-), through mutual friends and special-interest groups. But, that specifically doesn't work for straight people who are locked into gender-isolated bubbles.
(european POV, internet became mainstream in 2010s with social networks)
Wow. In the US, 2010 was about when AOL stopped stuffing our mailboxes with install disks... (some research later) make that 2006.
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nma...
Whether or not they want it -- "opportunity" isn't the right word for this.