As a single mum, my free time is sacred – it fills me with rage to waste it on bad dates | Paloma Faith

There is a general, unspoken understanding that most people who are on dating apps are there for an ego boost, free, noncommittal sex, and potentially to offload their madness on to others, while giving the impression to prospective partners with genuine intent that they are emotionally available. I wonder if the constant carousel of suitors in an age in which people don’t draw out courtship is going to gradually chip away at me if I partake in it. Will I become more desensitised, more cynical, more paranoid and potentially lose my spark, my hope, my wild abandon? Will I become, God forbid, one of them?