Finding Love in the Social Media Era

Love and social networks don't usually get along. Trying to combine them might make a relationship more contentious than romantic. Perhaps it might seem a prejudice, but believe me, there are plenty of studies that show that social networks have a negative influence on relationships and provoke jealousy, insecurity, harassment and, above all, many confusions.

Nowadays, our way of socializing, and therefore, flirting, begins to change slightly in urban environments. According to a Badoo study, - a site that specializes in letting people meet online-, an ordinary Internet user spends more time socializing in online networks than face to face. Thus, it's estimated that one in three people prefer to use digital media to contact others.

Social networks are a double-edged sword for love affairs. On the one hand, by avoiding face to face contact you can eliminate certain behaviors such as shyness or fear of rejection, and facilitate for strangers to know each other and establish deep fraternal ties. However, a study published by the Journal of Compute-mediated communication explains that the use of Facebook has a negative impact on relationships.

Thus, the most common behaviors associated with couples and the use of Facebook are jealousy, cyber bullying, stalking, the need for popularity, low self-esteem and, overall, a negative perception of the relationship, almost always linked to the popularity of one and the emotional instability of the other.

I bet that at least once you have been asked to delete a person from your friends list. If so, you are within 12% of users who have been asked to eliminate troublesome people in relationships, according to a study by the Pew Internet Project. That same paper explains that 25% of people who have a Facebook profile regularly check what other people write on their partner's profile.

It seems that the happiness of couples lies in the ability to ignore the Facebook profiles of each other.

Now, if you are a forever alone person, let me recommend some apps that can help you meet people and maybe even have an exciting adventure or, why not, a relationship.

Tinder

It is most popular app right now. The idea is to create a profile with your Facebook user data and use six profile pictures. After that, you select the age range and width of the area to be searched (e.g., 10 km radius), and it immediately shows us people who share our interests and who we might find interesting.

However, it is important to note that the other person is not aware that we are interested in them unless they are also interested in you. If there is a match, then a new window opens where you can chat with the person.

It has an average gender distribution of 55% male and 45% female, and the app is available for IOS and Android.

Down

Once called 'Bang with Friends', which leaves no doubt about the purpose of the application. The idea is to select our Facebook contacts with which we would like to have an affair. If the selected contact does the same with us, a notification is sent to both letting you know that you can proceed.

Break up notifier

It's very simple: select a contact from Facebook which you are interested in, who is involved in a romantic relationship with someone. If the chosen person changes their status, you'll receive a notification.

Streetmatching

Suppose you're walking down the street and meet someone, but you didn't ask for her name or telephone number. You then check into this app and select the place, date and time where your meeting happened; if the other person does the same, then you'll both receive a notification and receive each other's contact info.

So, there it is, you no longer have an excuse to walk alone dragging your blanket these days. You just need to download some applications and dedicate them a little time. Good luck!