Can This Weird Dating App Fix Our Loneliness Crisis?

Our world is experiencing a loneliness epidemic. People are more isolated than ever. But could a brand-new dating app be the cure everyone is looking for?

Welcome to Provoke and Inspire, where I wrestle with culture and current events by asking, "What would Jesus think, and what would Jesus do?"

We are more lonely than ever. It seems like every week a new study comes out, not only showing widespread loneliness in Western culture but also its devastating effects. You’ve probably heard this stat by now: loneliness is said to be worse for your health than smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. It’s linked to countless physical and mental health issues.

One of the places we’re turning for love and connection is dating apps. But these platforms rarely deliver. Every week, there's another study about how these apps are failing most of their users. There’s even a famous story about a guy who swiped over two million times across five years and ended up with just one or two dates. It’s ridiculous.

And yet, there's a new app promising to change things by using your browsing history to find your ideal match. Sounds dystopian, right? I don’t think it will work. And I doubt you do either.

Why not? Because we’re dealing with a worldview problem. The modern approach to solving loneliness is rooted in the belief that if I can just identify my needs and desires and find someone to meet them, then I’ll finally be fulfilled. That’s secular humanism. It puts me at the center. My needs are supreme. My happiness is the goal.

But this mindset is deeply self-focused. And all modern psychology agrees that the more self-focused you are, the more unhappy you’ll become.

The truth is, if I place myself at the center long enough, I’ll end up there alone.

We need a better worldview. One centered on self-sacrifice, service, and self-denial. That’s exactly what Jesus modeled. Christianity is built on the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—each deferring to and serving the other. Then in Jesus, we see the embodiment of that love and humility: someone who didn’t consider Himself too worthy to enter humanity, to serve, to love, to give, and ultimately to be rejected by the very people He came to save.

At the core of Christianity is the idea that to serve is better than to receive. That to find your life, you must lose it. That true fulfillment is found in emptying yourself for the sake of others.

This is the real remedy for our loneliness crisis—not another dating app, not AI, not an algorithm based on browser history.

Until we confront the worldview that puts self at the center, we’ll continue to build a culture of isolation. And no app is going to fix that.

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Peace.

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