Online dating is much safer than meeting women IRL. If you try to ask out women IRL, the chance for rejection is extremely high (they probably aren't looking for a date at all, after all), and if it's at work, that opens another big can of worms.

If you meet someone on a dating site, then you know they're interested in dating. And if you mutually match them (as most apps work now), you know they're at least a little bit interested in you.

100%. But this is not a positive thing for men or women.

How is this not positive? It keeps people from wasting their time and effort on people who aren't interested, and helps keep people (mainly women) from being harassed by men they aren't interested in, in inappropriate venues (like work), by giving those seeking dates an appropriate venue for their search.

If only the dating app companies were treating their job with respect and as a duty to society instead of perverting it for profit incentive, it would work much better for its intended function than it does now.

>How is this not positive?

Just repeating what I've been told, mainly by "older" women (30+), many people like that sort of attention, and miss it when they no longer receive it (more of a thing for 50+ people).

It's often not perceived as harassment or inappropriate, but of course it varies from person to person and also depends on how it's phrased ("would you like to get a coffee?" vs. "I want to cum on your face").