I just turned 32 and, like many people on this sub, I've been through three years of hell with dating apps. Highlights include:

  1. A guy that told me he was looking for a LTR that would hopefully lead to marriage, but was actually a pickup artist who played me hot and cold and even slapped me around a little;
  2. A guy who was great at first but became my first abusive boyfriend - unfortunately I'm still not completely over him;
  3. A guy who also became my boyfriend but randomly lost interest after 3 months, tried to ghost me, never paid me back $120 that he owed me, and blocked me when I asked about it;
  4. A guy who tried to touch me all over my body on the first date and also tried to block me in the booth with his wheelchair;
  5. A guy who told me he wanted a relationship with me but would never spend more than $9 on me and wouldn't go down on me;
  6. A guy that I was cuddle buddies (meaning I basically only made out with him plus a little more touching, but no actual sex) with because he didn't actually live in my area - he started off taking me to dinner, opening car doors for me, etc., but the last time I saw him he didn't take me out to dinner and basically treated me like an unpaid prostitute (just to be clear, again, we did not actually have sex).

Btw, all of these guys were university-educated with high-paying jobs for my area.

Now, my question is not about drawing boundaries or learning how to avoid these guys - I've become much more adept at that over the years with experience (I definitely cut the last four off immediately following bad behavior after learning from the first two). But I've gotten to the point where I have almost a physical, queasy reaction to the thought of another date with a guy from a dating app.

I used to think that the worst thing that would come from dating guys from apps would be that I would be into them but they wouldn't be into me. If only.

So is there something about dating apps that attracts particularly badly-behaved men? Or are they all like this but maybe I didn't notice? I feel like none of my other exes were this bad, but maybe I'm wrong.