You freaked out when you saw people you have previously matched with on an online dating app, suddenly show up on your social media as suggested friends.
Pure befuddlement.
These aren’t people you matched with and exchanged social media information with either.
These matches went nowhere, barely any message exchanges on a dating app.
Nevertheless, you are frequently seeing a good number of these matches show up on your social media as suggested friends.
Why is this happening?
This isn’t entirely unusual, especially when you are using a dating app that is connected to or affiliated with a social media platform.
Some dating apps and social media platforms are intertwined.
Dating apps and social media platforms that intertwine use similar algorithms to find matches or suggested friends for their users.
These algorithms use similar methodologies in how they go about suggesting matches and friends.
Upon matching with these women on a dating app, it wasn’t hard for the associated algorithm on the social media platform to find a similar connection between you and these matches.
There are common interests you share with these women that are displayed on the dating app, and the social media platform it is connected to or affiliated with.
What you look for in a romantic match is often similar to what you look for in a friend.
This leads to you receiving friend suggestions that are similar to the matches you have received on a dating app that is connected to or affiliated with the social media platform.
A dating app and social media platform don’t have to be connected or affiliated with each other directly for this to happen either.
The most popular dating apps and social media platforms are all owned by a few mega corporations.
A dating app that isn’t connected to or affiliated with the social media platform, could both be owned by the same company.
With this indirect connection, there remains a possibility that you end up seeing these matches as suggested friends on your social media.
With ownership under the control of one company, it is likely the same methodology is used in matching people and suggesting friends.
The company has access to your accounts on the dating app and on social media, as well as hers.
Meaning, it is feasible that you start seeing these matches on a dating app show up as suggested friends on your social media too.
Furthermore, cookies are a factor.
Browser or web cookies to be exact.
A cookie is a piece of data from a website that is preserved within a web browser that a website can recover at a subsequent time.
In layman’s terms, it’s like a tracker that watches your website behavior and uses that information to present targeted content at you whenever you return to the website.
There are good odds that a dating app and social media platform you use have put cookies on your computer that are triggered whenever you visit either.
This gives either one further insight into your online behavior, which gives them the latitude to put similar content in front of you.
Ergo, you are now seeing the matches you get on a dating app show up on your social media.