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One negative side effect of this type of
thinking for relationships is that partners
Where we are right now
are disposable. “This one isn’t what I
COMPANY
wanted, that’s okay there are more
people out there to match with.” The
other potentially dangerous trap to fall in
HIGHLIGHTS the
with online dating is an addiction to
game. Like Pavlov’s classical
conditioning experiments, we are
conditioning ourselves to react pos itively
to the “dings” of likes or messages from
online dating sites.

In Psychotherapist Phillip Karahassan’s
blog titled, “How Technology is Changing
Your Love Life,” he discusses how on line

dating can affect both the feelings of
expendability in relationships and the
frequency in which we seek validation.
An article in Time magazine written by
Dr. Letamendi stated, “Now that we can
interact with hundreds- no thousands- of
people simultaneously, we’ve
strengthened the impact others have on
our self-value.”

I had a middle aged man ask me why his
girlfriend was upset that he had so many
female friends on Facebook yet, she was
having constant conversations on

multiple apps with many men from her
past or posting pictures of herself and
getting feedback from them. The
answer could be she has grown
accustomed to the instant gratification
of the likes and messages.

The amount of attention one man can
give her may never be enough to satisfy
her needs. She may honestly have an
addiction to the spike of dopamine sent
to her brain every time she is “rewarded”
by the “ding”, or message.