It seems like everyone on dating sites and apps are "unique". Everybody is well-read, everybody listens to "cool" indie rock bands, everyone seems super smart and refined and grown-up and perfect. Have you wondered why the people you meet are so disturbingly similar? Well, that's because online dating focuses on intellect and depth.

Unfortunately, real-life dating is more about sex appeal. It sounds shallow, but who can deny it? It has to do with evolution. There's a simple rule: If you're not physically attracted to a person, you just move on. Online dating doesn't allow you to make this distinction with a simple swipe, at least, not until you've wasted £30 on dinner and 3 hours of your life that you're never going to get back. Honestly, you just judge them based on what they look like and some stupid bio they've really thought about for an hour. And that's why you give them a chance.

To add more to the stressful process, there are people who misinterpret themselves. You've heard of catfishing, right? They look completely different because the picture they put first is the ones that are really outdated or have been edited by several editing apps. Online they look perfect. With perfect hair, eyebrows and that smile that makes your heart beat a little faster. In real life, they have a unibrow and snaggle-tooth. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just not who their profile portrays. Maybe it's because they have someone else managing their account.

That's right. There are people whose profiles are run by their close friends or other people. I know because my friend used to do this for 'fun'. Online dating throws a metaphorical nail into the tyre of evolutionary plans of natural selection with regards to mating. A bunch of binary numbers attempts to match you up with strangers who you aren't compatible with whatsoever. It puts you in contact with people you would never meet in an outside setting. It tricks our brain into thinking that attraction is all about reading useless profiles and usernames. It tricks our brain into thinking that love and matching up with one another is all about who watches the same things you watch. To make matters more complicated, it makes us humans think that meeting people online is a substitute for having somewhat of a personality. (It's not, for the record)​

Of course, many people have met the love of their lives due to the uprising of sketchy online dating apps, congrats to you! Even TV adverts claim that 1 in 5 marriages are a result of meeting online.

But guess what: 4 out of 5 are not. So, mingle with the world, see what turns up.

Written by Jahnavi Sharma

- The Sydney Russell School