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However, he said another danger electronic dating posed was that some people are receiving the validation they need through the medium, and thus did not need to seek it in person.

“I have patients who spend their whole lives through internet socialisation but can’t meet face-to-face with friends on the internet,” he said.

“Some patients have only internet lives, they even have sex only over the internet.

“Mostly, it’s because the notion meeting in real life means you might get rejected or their dream might get smashed.”

Last month, ABC youth program Hack examined that exact phenomenon, discovering that many men and women matched with hundreds of people on Tinder but confined their interactions to the digital, without meeting in person.

Aly, a 26-year-old from Melbourne, told the program she chats to some of her 250 current matches, but she had only ever met one of them.

“I’m a heavy user,” she told news.com.au. “It can satisfy an emotional need.

“I might be on the couch feeling daggy and not really feeling good about myself. Then someone says, you’re looking good today.”

Occasionally, she’ll meet her matches, but often she’ll flake on the real-life date — mainly because of her own insecurities, she says.

She’s scared she won’t live up to the person they’ve imagined after meeting online, as had happened to her in the past.

“I’ve seen a guy physically lose interest in me, the spark go out of his eyes. That hurts. It puts you off to a degree,” she said

She said she finds it easier to talk to men through the app than in real life, where her image is less carefully controlled.

Dr Rosevear said it was that fear that also fuelled people engaging multiple partners for sex.

They have their sexual needs met without having to make themselves emotionally vulnerable.

“People who may not feel accepted or feel they could be vulnerable might use the attention as a substitute,” he said.

“People are pushed into seeking validation from as many sexual partners as they can.”

“That recipe of using attention as a substitute for acceptance means they get tunnel vision of only seeing the immediate gratification.