In case you missed it, the August issue of Vanity Fair magazine features an impressively bleak and depressing article with a title worth a thousand internet clicks: Tinder and the Dawn of the Dating Apocalypse. Written by Nancy Jo Sales, it's a salty, f-bomb-laden, desolate look at The Lives of Young People These Days. Traditional dating, the article suggests, has largely dissolved; young women, meanwhile, are the hardest hit.

Tinder, in case you're not on it right now, is a "dating" app that allows users to find interested singles nearby. If you like the looks of someone, you can swipe right; if you don't, you swipe left. "Dating" sometimes happens, but it's often a stretch: many people, human nature being what it is, use apps like Tinder – and Happn, Hinge, and WhatevR, Nothing MattRs (OK, I made that last one up) – for one-time, no-strings-attached hookups. It's just like ordering online food, one investment banker says, "but you're ordering a person." Delightful! Here's to the lucky lady who meets up with that enterprising chap!

Time to face up: Does Tinder really work for women? Credit:Simon Schluter

Sales writes: "In February, one study reported there were nearly 100 million people – perhaps 50 million on Tinder alone – using their phones as a sort of all-day, every-day, hand-held singles club where they might find a sex partner as easily as they'd find a cheap interstate flight."

The article goes on to detail a barrage of pleased young men, bragging about their "easy", "hit it and quit it" conquests. The women, meanwhile, express nothing but angst, detailing an army of dudes who are rude, dysfunctional, disinterested, and, to add insult to injury, often worthless in bed.