Shkodrani believes the problem isn’t that people don’t want meaningful relationships. It’s that they’ve been given the wrong tools to build them.

BU assistant professor of media science Kathryn Coduto says the evolution of dating apps over time has changed how people view relationships.

Businesses now look at dating apps as learning systems. They ask what makes users return daily, what keeps them emotionally invested, and how monetization can exist without destroying trust. Dating ...