As of fall of 2023, Kent State boasts an enrollment of 25,283 students on its main campus. While this presents a large pool of potential relationship partners, students may find it overwhelming to navigate this, with some instead turn to dating apps to create connections in a faster way. Three students, all with different goals, shared their experiences with three different dating apps. 

Lane Connor, junior integrated social studies major

Connor met their boyfriend in December 2022 through OkCupid. 

“I used OkCupid and actually really liked that one just because there were a lot of options regarding sexual orientation and stuff like that,” Connor said. “It was very broad.” 

After a month of online interaction, the couple had two in-person dates before becoming official. 

“Our first date was sometime during the first week of January, and then our second date is when I asked him to be my boyfriend, so it was pretty fast,” Connor said. “There wasn’t a lot of dates in between that.” 

While Connor downloaded OkCupid with the intention to find a romantic partner and quickly began a relationship, they don’t think their experience is universal. 

“I know a lot of people, and even my friends, would meet someone and talk for months, and then, never officiate anything – it just wouldn’t really go well,” Connor said. “When I tried dating apps in the past, it also wouldn’t really work. I mean, I don’t think it’s necessarily a really, really rare thing, but I don’t think it’s common.” 

Kate, a junior communications major 

Kate, who chose to only go by her first name for safety reasons, joined Tinder in 2022.

“I originally downloaded Tinder as a joke, and it was kind of just for fun, kind of just whatever,” Kate said.

In September of 2022, she started a “situationship” with a man she matched with. 

“I had told him I didn’t want a relationship, he told me he didn’t want a relationship,” Kate said. “I said, ‘OK that’s fine, I won’t ask again. I don’t have a problem continuing a friends with benefits thing, like what we’ve been doing.’” 

This casual relationship continued between the two until March of 2023. The pair had made it clear that they were not mutually exclusive, and both of them were active on dating apps during the six months of their “situationship.”

In March of 2023, the relationship between the two abruptly changed when the man suddenly decided he wanted an exclusive relationship with her. 

“From what I think, in his brain he’s like, ‘Oh shit. I’m about to graduate, and I don’t have a relationship. I don’t have anything tying me to college. I want a girlfriend, so we should be in a relationship,’” Kate said. “I was sort of just like, ‘If you want to keep getting together, fine, I don’t care, but now you want a relationship when you know how different our views are — no, that’s not happening.’”

Despite the original agreement between the two, Kate’s dismissal of a more serious, long-term relationship did not go over well. 

“In one night, I received four phone calls and a voicemail, as well as Snapchats, Instagram DMs and at least 10 text messages that were paragraphs saying things along the lines of ‘I’m sorry I’m going to make this right to you,’ to ‘Actually no, f*** you, you’re just playing with my heart,’” Kate said. 

This barrage of messages continued over the next few weeks, as the man alternated between yelling at her and apologizing to her, and at one point even claiming to be in love with her. 

When Kate responded by ending the “situationship” between the two of them, the man began sending even more messages, spamming her social media and showing up to her house. 

“At that point, he wouldn’t leave me alone,” she said. “He was coming to my house. He was blowing up my phone. So I called him and told him I was actually getting scared – I needed him to know this.”

The situation did not end until Kate blocked and removed the man on every platform. 

Riley Nicol, a junior fashion merchandising major

Nicol has never used Bumble as a dating app. Instead, she has made connections through Bumble For Friends, an app designed for finding friends. 

“I recently have found friends on the app that I might have already recognized from class, or from being downtown in Kent,” she said. “Now I sit next to one of the girls in class, where before we knew each other but never felt comfortable enough to go up to one another.” 

Nicol believes more and more students will begin to consider using dating apps to form platonic relationships. 

“I think there has been a shift recently where people are starting to use Bumble for Friends more than the original Bumble dating app,” Nicol said. “Coming to a college campus can be scary, and making new friends is extremely tough. Friendship apps are the perfect way to make those friendships and put yourself out there without the awkwardness of an initial in person interaction.” 

Kaitlyn Mitchell is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].