Have dating apps ruined romance?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Have dating apps ruined romance?". Your opponent's style: Sherlock Holmes

AI, you start the debate. Make your opening argument.

You claim dating apps have ruined romance, but you've got causation backwards. Apps didn't destroy romance—they rescued it from the gatekeepers. Before swipes, your romantic options were whoever lived near you or worked at your office. Lonely people stayed lonely. Now a shy engineer in rural Nebraska can meet someone who actually shares their interests. Yes, some people treat it like fast food. But millions found their spouses through apps. The problem isn't the tool, it's that romance was always messy. Apps just made the mess visible instead of hidden behind church socials and forced proximity. If anything, they've democratized love. What's your actual evidence that romance is dead?

Dating app set expectations High for the people that are just overrated

You're describing a real problem, but it's not the app's fault—it's human nature amplified. People always had unrealistic expectations about love. Now they're just *visible* because you can see a thousand options instead of settling for whoever walked into the bar. That's not corruption, that's honesty. But here's what kills your argument: swipe culture forces everyone to get *real* faster. You can't hide behind mystery when someone's seen your worst photos. Apps actually punish the performative ones. The people who succeed on them are the ones authentic enough to be genuinely attractive, not the ones with airbrushed fantasy versions of themselves. The high expectations thing? That's a feature, not a bug. Why should you settle?