Dating in 2026: Something Is Deeply Off — and Most Guys Feel It

Dating in 2026: Why Most Men Feel Lost, Disconnected, and Left Behind

I was talking with a client this afternoon about how much dating has changed over the last twenty years.

And the truth is…
It hasn’t just changed.
It’s warped.

Twenty years ago, if a guy struggled socially or felt insecure, he might put a woman on a pedestal in his own head.

Now?

That pedestal is literal.
Public.
and is being reinforced 24/7.

Phones.
Social media.
Dating apps.
Endless images of women being praised, validated, sexualized, and worshipped — constantly.

And the crazy part is most guys have no idea how much this is quietly wrecking their confidence and their lives.

What we’re actually watching happen

Online dating and all these social platforms are not just an “easier way to meet women” anymore.

It’s turned into overexposure and addiction.

Even average — and I mean genuinely average — women are being flooded with attention at a level no human nervous system was built to handle.

Likes.
DMs.
Compliments.
Sexual validation from hundreds or thousands of men they’ll never meet.

Did you know that on platforms like Tinder, women often receive thousands of messages — sometimes well over 1,000 —

Meaning many are getting dozens or even hundreds of new messages every single day?

Do you have any idea what that does to a person long-term?

And what about the other side?

Instead of going out, socializing, and actually living, men are spending more and more time at home.

Countless hours scrolling.

Not connecting.
Not embodied.
Not living.
Not having sex.

Not laughing. 

Just staring. Overthinking. Projecting.
Fantasizing.
Slowly giving their power away one swipe at a time.

And no — this isn’t harmless scrolling, even though your inner voice will try to convince you it is.

It’s only getting worse — and the gap keeps widening

Here’s something I see constantly in my work, and almost no one wants to talk about it honestly:

A massive amount of undealt-with trauma, mixed with avoidance, emotional shutdown, and addiction.

It’s estimated that more than one in five U.S. adults lives with some form of mental illness.

At least that is what Google says, from my own experience of seeing how most people navigate life...

It is much higher than that. 

Anxiety.
Depression.
Bipolar disorders.
Dissociation.
Addiction used as coping.

Here's the thing; Women are emotional by nature — that’s not an insult, it’s biology. 

But instead of being supported to feel, process, and integrate emotion…

Many are armoring up.
Shutting down.
Taking on a hardened, masculine ego as protection.

And a huge number are medicating just to cope with it.

Be honest — have you been out with an attractive woman lately?

If you have, there’s a good chance you noticed anxiety, emotional instability, or some form of addiction sitting just under the surface.

Meanwhile, men are losing grounding.
Losing masculine confidence.
Losing a clean relationship with their own desire.

The polarity that creates attraction?

It’s collapsing quickly.

And what replaces it isn’t empowerment or equality —
it’s confusion, resentment, and disconnection.

Why this is more dangerous than people realize

This isn’t just about dating apps or single people.

This is much bigger than that.

It affects men and women who are single, married, and in long-term relationships.

In fact, I’ve noticed it can be worse for people in relationships.

They stop having sex.
They stop connecting.
And instead, they fantasize about the endless stream of people they’re scrolling past.

This is a serious epidemic, festering below the surface — and almost no one is naming it.

Here’s what I personally see happening:

• Higher breakup and divorce rates

• More people alone because they don’t know how to connect with the opposite sex

• A severe rise in mental illness

• A massive uptick in suicide and crime

• Men becoming numb and disconnected from real intimacy

• Sexual shame quietly building instead of being integrated and expressed

• Fantasies becoming uncontrollable and replacing lived experience

• Emotional and social avoidance becoming normal

• Trauma stacking instead of resolving

• Attention addiction replacing attraction

• Masculinity becoming something men feel afraid to own

• Distrust between men and women hardening

• Responsibility being delayed indefinitely

And worst of all…

The next generation inheriting this mess as “normal.”

None of that leads anywhere good.

If you recognize yourself in this — stop

If you’re reading this and you know you’ve been participating…

Stop.

It’s not too late.

Stop feeding the circus.
Stop giving your attention away — especially when it costs you self-respect.

Even if no one is watching.
Even if you’re bored.
Even if it feels harmless.

Your nervous system keeps score.

And it always collects the debt — guilt, shame, disconnection — because deep down, you know this isn’t natural.

The part most men don’t want to face

If most men had done the deeper inner work —
emotional regulation,
identity repair,
owning and expressing their sexuality cleanly —

We wouldn’t be here.

A fulfilled man doesn’t scroll for hours.
A grounded man doesn’t worship images.
A sexually integrated man doesn’t suppress desire and let it rot into fantasy.

Here’s the real danger:

When a man suppresses his true sexual nature instead of owning it,
He loses control over his mind.

His thoughts become distorted.

His memories become fogged. 

His stories become hollow illustrations, an attempt to suppress the truth of his past.

And distortion doesn’t stop on its own.

It escalates.

Where this actually leaves us

Dating in 2026 doesn’t need better apps.
It doesn’t need better algorithms or more options.

It needs better men.

Men who respect themselves enough to step out of the circus.
Men who honor their desire instead of fearing it or numbing it.
Men who lead themselves instead of chasing validation.
Men who build real confidence and real lives — where attraction is a byproduct, not the goal.

That’s the fork in the road.

Most men won’t take it.
Not because they can’t — but because it requires honesty, responsibility, and discomfort.

But the men who do?

They won’t struggle the way everyone else is.

And hear this clearly

If you fell into this world…
If you numbed out.
If you scrolled.
If you fantasized.
If you lost touch with yourself for a while —

That doesn’t make you weak.
It makes you human.

There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.

You were responding to an environment that was designed to hijack your attention, your biology, and your sense of self.

Your past doesn’t define you.

What matters is what you choose now.

This moment — right here — is where character is built.
Not by pretending you were never lost…
But by deciding you’re done staying there.

The invitation

If you can feel this in your body — not just agree with it intellectually — then you already know the truth.

You don’t need more information.
You don’t need more tricks.
You don’t need another app.

You need to reclaim your power as a man.
Your masculinity.
Your self-respect.

And that starts with one honest decision:

Stop feeding what weakens you.
Start building what makes you solid.

If you’re ready to do that — not someday, but now —
you know where to find me.

-Cory Skyy