The concept of a vast 'mating marketplace' driven by immediate value signals is a recent phenomenon. Evolutionarily, humans formed bonds based on long-term compatibility within small, familiar tribes, suggesting that today's dating apps create an unnatural and potentially detrimental dynamic.

Modern dating apps create a dynamic where a small percentage of men monopolize sexual partners, leaving many others sexless. This technologically-driven outcome mirrors 'effective polygyny,' an ancestral mating pattern, rather than creating a new social problem.

As women's success grows, their preference to "date up and across" creates an imbalanced sex ratio at the top of the socioeconomic ladder. This gives a small group of ultra-high-performing men disproportionate power, leading them to be less committal.

Technology, particularly dating apps, has structured the romantic landscape into a hyper-competitive market. This system funnels the majority of female attention to a small percentage of men, creating a 'have' and 'have-not' dynamic that mirrors wealth disparity and fuels the incel narrative of a rigged system.

Unlike real-world interactions, dating app algorithms foster an extremely unequal market where a small percentage of users get the vast majority of swipes and messages, a dynamic Dr. Eastwick calls a "kleptocracy."

Online dating platforms strip away the nuances of in-person attraction like charm or humor. Instead, they reduce individuals to filterable data points (e.g., height, income), allowing users to easily screen out the vast majority of potential partners and hyper-concentrate attention on a tiny, statistically "elite" fraction.

Unlike the industrial economy's bell-curve wealth distribution, the digital economy operates on a power law. A small percentage of participants capture a majority of the rewards, whether in e-commerce or online dating. This inherently shrinks the middle class.

Contrary to their marketing, dating apps are financially incentivized to keep users single and swiping, not to help them find a long-term partner. Their business model thrives on user churn within the dating pool, not successful exits from it.

The digitization of mating has replicated the dynamics of tech platforms like Amazon or Meta, where a small percentage of men receive a disproportionate majority of female attention, making it a challenging environment for the average user.