We've been living with dating apps for some years now. What's more, we could say they've become the most common way to meet people and hook up. But it also seems that being a user of these platforms is a kind of vicious circle. We enter them with enthusiasm, we get a match, we have some conversations and, with luck, a date. In the end, however, we discover it's not what we were looking for, that it makes us cringe or, in the worst case, they end up breaking our hearts. We delete them, clearly stating we'll never go back to the devil's app again, but after a while, we download it again. And so, time and time again, each time with a little less hope.

Before separating, Raúl (a fictitious name to maintain his anonymity) saw a lot of potential in dating apps and was eager to try them out. Having had the opportunity, he hasn't used them and is "far from" doing so. He wants to stop spending so many hours in front of his phone and delving into this world is precisely going in the other direction. But the truth is, he hasn't missed them. "I've met people who have interested me and people who have interested me," he says when explaining how he's handled this new situation. He also confesses that being able to experiment has been a "healthy and good motivation" for him.

In a context of growing global geopolitical tension and with Donald Trump's return to the White House, more and more European citizens and companies are seriously considering reducing their dependence on US tech giants. This movement is not new, but it has seen significant momentum in recent months, as evidenced by the exponential increase in visits to the European Alternatives directory, which increased eightfold since Trump's inauguration in January 2025.