The Dream of a Dating App That Doesn't Want Your Money

Spending time on dating apps, I know from experience, can make you a little paranoid. When you swipe and swipe and nothing's working out, it could be that you've had bad luck. It could be that you're too picky. It could be--oh God--that you simply don't pull like you thought you did. But sometimes, whether out of self-protection or righteous skepticism of corporate motives, you might think: Maybe the nameless faces who created this product are conspiring against me to turn a profit--meddling in my dating life so that I'll spend the rest of my days alone, paying for any feature that gives me a shred of hope.