Before dating apps, people were less likely to next each other because they didn't have a ridiculous degree of perceived abundance. If you passed the basic compatibility stuff you try to work out differences or accept flaws, etc.
The ridiculous perceived abundance is mostly a female thing.
There's a lot of talk on this forum about how the ridiculous perceived abundance allows women to put up big notch counts. Big notch counts can happen. A woman has the potential to have sex with as many partners as she desires because the demand for her is endless. However, that's not necessarily how it works for most women, even women that have sex with many men as a result of using swipe apps (and Instagram DMs to a lesser extent).
Most men on swipe apps fail to have sex with women with such abundance. Most women have something like "1-2 dates, no sex, no extended relationship" with men from swipe apps. If a woman has sex with 3 men from swipe apps in a 4 month period, she likely rejected around 10-15 men after 1-2 dates during that same period, plus the hundreds of men who never made it out of her swipe queue or the in-app messaging/text messaging/phone call stage.
The same is true of women using Instagram DMs for finding dates.
The typical 33 year old "average" or "mid-tier woman on a dating app has more abundance than the supermodels of the 1980s/early 1990s of the tail end of the pre-internet era. Elle MacPherson (SI Swimsuit Issue cover model 1986-1988) or Kathy Ireland (SI Swimsuit Issue cover model 1989, 1992) never got to experience the abundance that average women on swipe apps experience. In their late 1980s-early 1990s primes, MacPherson and Ireland were approached in nightlife venues and on the streets a good amount. They couldn't be DM'ed. If a random guy lacked in-person access to them, he would have to write a letter (either handwritten or typed) and send it to the modeling agency. That involves either putting pen to paper, typing/printing out paper, getting an envelope, putting postage on it, and finding a mailbox to drop it in. That took far more effort than just sending a DM on Instagram.
While MacPherson and Ireland had access to fewer men in those days, they tended to only take approaches from pro athletes, famous men in the arts (actors, artists, top photographers), and rich businessmen seriously. MacPherson dated Billy Joel, was married to some photographer for 3 years with no children, had a 9 year non-marital relationship with some rich businessman (in her 30s-early 40s) resulting in 2 children and then had a another failed marriage in her 40s/50s with another rich guy.
Now, this whole abundance thing is basically limited to females and exceptionally desirable men, I'm talking celebrities, pro athletes, etc. Most guys are lucky to get even a handful of matches on a dating app, let alone actually going out on dates with these matches.
The men with abundance tend to do things differently than the women with abundance. Men are less likely to exit after 1-2 dates with no sex by their own choice. Men with abundance will "hit it and quit it". Short men sex with multiple women and sometimes overlapping. They'll avoid making the commitment while having sex if they can do it.
