Red flag: Study shows men on dating apps focus more on women younger than them

It's the 'I can't date women my own age' for me.

If there is one thing I'm glad I've never had to do it's online dating. While there was some online dating sites when I first started dating it was still fairly new and no one had smartphones (showing my age here) so dating apps definitely weren't a thing. Since the advent of the dating app there have been many studies looking into who uses them and what their online dating habits are like. One study published in Science Advances found that among men who use dating apps, when deciding on what kind of woman they want to date many will choose a woman younger than them rather than a peer their own age. The study found that a when it came to age women typically found men up to the age of 50 very desirable. On the other hand most men only found women desirable up to the age of, wait for it, 18. Considering that women who are 18 are just one year up from being a teenager it's a little bit concerning and creepy. Most people I knew were sitting their leaving cert when they were 18. Other research conducted by OK Cupid a few year ago had very similar findings;

"The service found that men from the ages of 22 to 30 focus almost entirely on women who are younger than them. The median 30-year-old man spends as much time messaging teenage girls as he does women his own age."

Not only are the findings of the research disheartening for women genuinely trying to date through these apps but it is also majorly concerning that so many men across different apps and sites are messaging teenagers. It's also less than thrilling that between the years that both studies took place that very little has changed. With us all stuck indoors at the moment with no in person dating allowed, online dating is it at the moment but how useful it's going to be for most women I don't know.