Problematic dating app and pornography use are linked to a weaker sense of meaning in romantic love

People who struggle with compulsive use of online dating apps and pornography tend to view romantic love as less existentially meaningful and more as a practical arrangement. A recent study published in BMC Psychology suggests that addiction-like engagement with these digital platforms is linked to a fractured philosophical understanding of romance. The research provides evidence that problematic users are more likely to fall in love quickly and frequently but often lack a deep sense of purpose in their romantic connections.

The study approaches romantic love from an existential perspective. In this view, love is not just a biological drive or a social contract but a fundamental part of human existence that gives life depth and meaning. People who see love through an existential lens often view their romantic relationships as highly meaningful and worthy of personal sacrifice.

Online dating and pornography consumption are incredibly common, and for many people, they are harmless activities. But for some, engagement with these platforms becomes problematic. Problematic use happens when a behavior becomes compulsive, feels out of the person’s control, and starts interfering with their daily life and mood.

Frequent exposure to the specific environments of dating apps and pornography websites might shape how people think about romance. For example, dating apps often encourage users to evaluate potential partners based on superficial traits in a matter of seconds. A 2026 study found that online pornography use is tied to both dating app use and higher levels of emotional detachment.

“It began with something fairly ordinary,” lead researcher Reza Shabahang, a research associate in psychology in the College of Human Sciences and Culture at Flinders University, told PsyPost. “Dating apps have quietly become one of the main ways people meet, and yet a lot of the conversation around them, in research and outside it, was about how much people use them and how that use affects mood, self-esteem or body image.”

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The researchers suspected that the negative experiences common to these platforms might alter a user’s sense of meaning. Rejection, shallow conversations, and an endless stream of potential matches on dating apps might erode the idea of a single, meaningful romantic bond. Similarly, the focus on physical gratification over intimacy in pornography might encourage users to view love more practically rather than existentially.

“We kept noticing something else in how people talk about these platforms, a kind of weariness, a sense that the whole business of finding someone had started to feel hollow,” Shabahang explained. “That’s not really a question about well-being in the usual sense. It’s a question about meaning, about what people come to believe love is worth.”

“The literature on behavioral addiction had started to take dating apps seriously, but mostly as a pattern of behavior to be measured, not as something that might change a person’s outlook on love itself,” he added. “So the gap we wanted to address was an existential one, and the real-world problem behind it is that a great many people are now meeting one of their most fundamental needs through a channel we still understand quite poorly.”

To explore these existential questions, Shabahang and his colleagues at Flinders University and ELTE Eötvös Loránd University surveyed 664 adult internet users in Iran. The participants had an average age of 26 and used both dating apps and pornography websites. The researchers asked participants to complete several questionnaires measuring their digital habits and their attitudes toward love.

The surveys measured problematic dating app use and problematic pornography consumption, asking if participants felt restless without the platforms or tried and failed to cut back. The researchers also measured emotional promiscuity, also known as emophilia. This is the tendency to fall in love quickly, frequently, and with less selectivity. A study covered by PsyPost in 2024 indicated that higher levels of emophilia were associated with having had more romantic relationships and being unfaithful more often.

Participants also answered questions about their existential reflection on love, rating how often they contemplate the philosophy and purpose of romance. They rated the perceived meaningfulness of love, indicating whether they felt love imparts a sense of meaning to their existence. The researchers also assessed pragmatic views of love, which treat romance as a practical arrangement dependent on things like financial stability. Finally, the team measured mindful social media use, assessing whether participants stay aware and intentional while scrolling.

The results showed that problematic engagement with dating apps and pornography was negatively associated with deep, philosophical views of love. Higher levels of problematic dating app use were linked to less existential reflection on love and a lower sense of love’s overall meaningfulness. The researchers controlled for age, gender, education, relationship status, and sexual orientation, ensuring these basic demographic factors were not driving the results.

Problematic use of both platforms was positively associated with a pragmatic view of love and higher emotional promiscuity. In other words, individuals who compulsively swiped on dating apps or consumed pornography were more likely to view romance as a practical transaction and were prone to falling in love rapidly and repeatedly. The two problematic behaviors were also positively correlated with each other, meaning people who struggled to control their dating app use often struggled with their pornography consumption as well.

The researchers also found a strong negative association between mindful social media use and both problematic behaviors. People who reported being highly aware of their thoughts and actions while using social media were much less likely to use dating apps or pornography compulsively. Once mindful social media use was factored into the statistical model, problematic pornography consumption also showed a negative association with the perceived meaningfulness of love.

“The way you use these apps matters more than whether you use them,” Shabahang said. “Most people assume the danger lies in the amount, that if you’re on there too often or too long, something will go wrong. What we found points somewhere else.”

Instead, purposeful engagement appears to play a protective role. “Someone can spend a fair bit of time on dating apps and come away fine, if they know why they’re there and when to stop,” Shabahang explained. “The practical takeaway isn’t to delete the app. It’s to notice how you’re using it. Ask yourself what you came for, whether you’re getting it, and be willing to close the app when the answer is no.”

These findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in 2022, which found that greater perceived meaninglessness in life was associated with more frequent pornography use. It is worth noting, however, that the older study measured an overall lack of meaning in life, whereas the new study specifically examined existential meaning in the context of romantic love.

When interpreting the findings, the researchers urge readers to view the associations as a direction rather than destiny. “What we’re describing is a tendency, not a rule, and plenty of people in our data don’t fit the pattern at all,” Shabahang noted. “So nobody should read this and conclude that their own use has already done something to them.”

However, on a broader scale, these tendencies carry weight. “Effects of this size become quite significant once you consider how many people are involved,” he added. “When a platform has hundreds of millions of users, a modest shift in how a portion of them think about love and relationships is not a small thing socially.”

As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. Because the study is cross-sectional, it only captures a snapshot in time, making it impossible to establish a firm chain of cause and effect. The research also looks at addiction-like patterns of use, rather than a formally recognized clinical disorder.

“It’s entirely possible that people who already feel disillusioned with love are the ones drawn into compulsive use, rather than the other way around, and the honest answer is that both are probably happening at once,” Shabahang explained. “We’re not saying dating apps are bad, or that using them will make you cynical about love. For many people these platforms work well and meet a genuine need.”

The study also relied on self-reported data from an Iranian sample. In Iran, dating apps and pornography websites are officially restricted and require workarounds to access. The cultural context regarding sexual modesty and religion is also distinct, which might influence how people report their habits. Still, the researchers suggest the psychological mechanisms at play likely apply to users in other parts of the world.

Moving forward, the team hopes to conduct longitudinal research to track changes over time. “After that, we’d like to look at prevalence, though as I said earlier that’s some way off and depends on the field settling on how to define and measure this in the first place,” Shabahang said. “We’re also interested in cross-cultural comparison, because how openly dating apps are used varies a great deal from one society to another, and we suspect the meaning people draw from them varies with it.”

Eventually, the researchers want to test whether simple prompts or design changes can effectively encourage mindful use. “That last question interests us most, because it’s the one with something practical at the end of it,” he added.

The study, “Romeo swipes Juliet left!? Problematic online dating app use and problematic pornography consumption are associated with a weaker sense of existential meaning in romantic love,” was authored by Reza Shabahang, Zsolt Demetrovics, Mehdi Akbari, Gaëlle Ouvrein, and Ágnes Zsila.