Night after night I grew more demoralised, flipping through my “matches” of all the cliched nonsense I hadn’t really believed was real prior to experiencing it myself: fish pics and leering bathroom mirror selfies, and married men who wanted to “ethically explore.”

We both shut down our dating app accounts after the first date (probably not advisable, but what can I say; we did)

Was this really all there was? I wanted an actual partner, not just to be someone’s “partner in crime” from the backseat of his Harley so we could “keep it casual and see what happens.”

All these attributes align perfectly with the process of burning the haystacks in dating apps

I also hadn’t realised how much my age would work against me. […]