The smartphone is the single biggest catalyst that is causing men to abandon dating in droves.

Before the invention of the smartphone, women had to make a time investment in meeting someone. She had to get dressed up, made up, go out and at least feign being pleasant for a time. Blind dates, set ups through friends, parties, even random encounters at the coffee shop or on the train. Dating was always skewed toward woman, but men in these situations at least had a fighting chance.

They had a chance because you could actually make an impression, you know, in the reality in which we live. By the time a woman got around to "screening" your finances, popularity, and the like, she already decided if she liked you, and would therefore give you a pass for any deficiencies.

Fast forward to today, or any year after the mass adoption of the smartphone and all the social networking and text etiquette that goes with it. A woman no longer needs to make a time investment in meeting a man. A few single pictures, carefully cropped and doctored, take the place of any effort in the real world. A man has no chance to make a real physical or emotional connection. He is screened instantly through his various social network profiles for attractiveness, height, financial situation, and popularity or status.

Just one deficiency in any of these four main areas and you are nexted. It's actually worse than nexted. It's like you don't even exist. You just disappear in the mind of the female. You are not a real person. And men still need to put in a significant time investment to try to attract an audition.

Even if you meet in real life as opposed to online, you still must fight through texting hell to ever have a chance of seeing her again. You lose any benefits of attractiveness and/or presence and are reduced to text on a screen, exactly the same as everyone else. As you jockey for position on her phone, you waste your time. Trying to come up with funny things to say, while hinting toward a physical meetup. At any time she can choose to ignore you forever. You'll never know why. Maybe it was something you said. Maybe it was something you didn't say. Maybe you texted at the wrong time of day or night. Maybe she saw something shiny and forgot all about you.

Go through texting hell enough and you'll start to develop an anxiety toward sending messages. You'll realize it's just better to your well being not to go through something so emotionally agonizing for a 1% chance at a meetup.

Your chance at a meetup is exceedingly low. Since you are a man, you are probably busy. Busy going to work or studying since you have to fight for a job, fight to keep that job, must always stay ahead of the payments, since no welfare programs or politicians are going to help you. If you fall behind, you become a "total loser" and your already slim chance at attracting a mate become subterranean. Because of this, you want to schedule a meet up for a mutual time that works. Can we meet Friday night? Is Saturday better?

Well, a woman in demand doesn't know what she's doing that night. That's like 3 whole days away. What if she meets Brad Pitt between now and then? What if someone offers to fly her across the country for VIP tickets to a concert? What if she just feels tired and wants to stay in with her best friend Netflix?

You see, your chances of a response to such a question in the first place are low. You might get some excuses which only prolong the game until she eventually ghosts you. Or you might get some sort of commitment. But a commitment these days is nothing of the sort, because she will most likely cancel at the last minute. Sometimes she just won't show, or sometimes she will send a text that took her two seconds to compose. You are rewarded for all your effort by sitting awkwardly in the meetup place and then leaving alone. At this point, all your time and effort has been wasted. Because only a true blue pilled adolescent type would further pursue a woman who lacked even the interest to show up when agreed.

And now we come full circle within this post. I stated that women basically value a man based on a calculus of four general categories: attractiveness, height, finances, and popularity/status. Some of these things you can improve if you work on them. You can certainly improve your looks, your finances. You can develop hobbies, friendships, and buy the toys and items that demonstrate high status. You might get the idea you can improve yourself to the point where you can stand out from the herd and decrease all the flakiness you've been experiencing.

Wrong. Because the smartphone has checkmated us again. With the smartphone constantly in her hand, there is always someone less deficient in every area than you. It's true that they will eventually be passed over for someone less deficient then them. But does that really matter?

I did this once. Ran into what I considered wife material. Almost perfect in terms of dating material. But she was broken hearted. Just got out of a relationship and didn't want to see anyone. Couldn't get her to go out, she was just too sad. I hit the gym, worked on improving myself. When she was done moping, she would let me know. The next time I saw her, she was already seeing someone. This is the overabundance of men in the smartphone era. The instant she was ready, the proverbial wealthy 6'2" helicopter pilot is literally just a click away.

After dozens or hundreds of these interactions, you start to realize the game is rigged. You are a fool. The only ones playing are the proverbial rock stars, the naturals who never had to work on improving themselves, who were born good with women. And EVEN THEY are being juggled around as women constantly use their smartphones to find a potential upgrade. Of the men playing, most are consistently losing; the ones who aren't are giving up just about everything just for a brief crack at the hottest women.

These are way worse than Vegas odds. Imagine 100 guys at a huge craps table. 90 of the guys lose on every single roll of the dice. Yet they keep forking over paycheck after paycheck and spending their time at the table.

10 guys at the table are winning. But are they? Because after they win a roll, they lose the next one (the woman upgrades.) They are really breaking even, but they are having fun playing. They might believe next time will be different and their luck will change.

Occasionally one of the winners wins a few rounds and manages to leave the table with his winnings. But as he heads for the door, the casino goons swoop in grab the winnings (divorce rape.)

Of the 100 players, 90 will give up because they constantly lose. 10 will play longer but will eventually give up when they get exhausted from playing.

And this is dating in the smartphone era. Everybody loses. It's just a matter of time.

Your choices become: waste significant time and effort just for a very slim chance to be "the guy" for a very short period of time.

Settle for someone very undesirable with tons of baggage, willing to put "the search" on long term hold in exchange for you accepting her.

It's lose/lose. 95+ percent chance you will do nothing but waste your time. 5 percent chance you'll be the temporary guy. Or you can settle for something that doesn't make you happy just to not be alone.