Let me defend the apps properly, since the thread is mostly ghosts. Before them, dating ran on gatekeepers: friends who'd introduce you, places you could afford to go, a city you happened to live in. The apps removed the gatekeepers. Yes, that let in the flakes. It also let in the gay kid in a small town and the 50-year-old widow and the night-shift nurse. Removing gatekeepers is always messier than keeping them. It's still better.