The "Meat Market" in Group Chats

"My profile, with a photo, is currently posted in about thirty closed dating groups on messaging apps. Every day the moderators dump hundreds of similar résumés into them: 'Miri, 23, modest...', 'Batsheva, 25, university degree...'

I caught myself thinking that this format has turned the search for a family into some kind of cynical digital assembly line. People no longer read the descriptions carefully, they don't try to make out the actual person. They just scroll their smartphone screen at the speed of light. Didn't like the angle of the photo? Scroll. Brother's yeshiva isn't the right one? Scroll. You become text spam, competing with dozens of other messages for a split second of attention from some guy's anxious mother. It creates a horrible feeling of being devalued. A month ago I asked to have my profile removed from all the databases. I realized that I'd rather work with one shadchanit who knows me personally than take part in this endless digital clearance sale of souls."