Why Internet Dating Advice Is Terrible

A dating coach on TikTok tells women to never text first. Another tells men to open with a neg. A third tells everyone to wait three days before responding. The advice is contradictory, evidence-free, and almost always wrong. But it gets likes. And likes pay bills.In this episode, I examine why most internet dating advice is not only useless but actively harmful. The people giving the advice have no training in psychology, no data on relationship outcomes, and often no successful relationships of their own. They are content creators, not experts. Their goal is engagement, not accuracy. The algorithm rewards extreme claims and simple formulas. The reality of human attraction is messy, contextual, and resistant to rules.The episode explores research on what actually predicts relationship success: kindness, emotional stability, and shared values. None of these can be packaged into a thirty-second video. None of them generate viral engagement. But they are the only advice that works.Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play because the best dating advice cannot be monetized, which is why you never hear it.