To some, dating is all about getting picked up at 8 o’clock and going out before getting brought back home. However, to many people in the millennial generation, dating has turned into “Netflix and Chill” and searching for someone to hang out with on Tinder. So where can we take both of these aspects and meet in the middle?

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Digital dating has become a norm to many people in today’s world. What once was known as a hardship of trying to go up to somebody to introduce yourself and hope for the best has now turned into a simple swipe of the finger in hopes of potentially landing a date.

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However, Candice Jalili, a write for Elite Daily, has a friend who had been talking to a Tinder match for four months and when finally asked on a date, was repulsed by the idea. She was strictly talking to this guy with no intention of ever meeting up with him. Jalili confesses, “I wanted to judge her, but I honestly can't. When I was single, I used to do the same thing. I would log on to Tinder, swipe on a bunch of hot guys, make some casual, flirty small talk and never actually meet up with any of them.” A recent study by Lendedu found that this actually often the case, showing that over 70 percent of people who actively use Tinder have never actually gone on a date with any of their matches.

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While dating apps can be traced back to the predominance of smart phone usage in society, they don’t appeal to just anyone in the social media presence.

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Ian Taylor, junior Software Engineering major, never thought of using any dating apps. He states, “I was dating a girl for a very long time,” which is why it never crossed his mind. Now that he is no longer in a relationship, he still doesn’t think he will use an app to find somebody. Instead, he views it as a platform where users only look for something short-term.

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Likewise, Mary Macaraeg, sophomore Biology major, is not in favor of the idea of this method. She confesses “I just don’t like the idea of finding someone through an app.”

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Although many people have these similar views on dating apps, others see it in a different light. Some of these people have been lucky enough to find dates or even love on these platforms. An anonymous Behrend student has found multiple dates on Tinder and is considering continuing to use this app to find dates in the future. While many would like to think of apps as a place to be a hopeless romantic, only about 4 percent of users admit to using Tinder in search of relationships, according to Elite Daily. Another 44 percent look to it as a form of a confidence boost.

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These dating apps have become prominent in today’s idea of dating whether or not they prove to be successful. No matter what view you have on the idea, chances are they aren’t going away anytime soon.