Treena Orchard, "Sticky, Sexy, Sad: Swipe Culture and the Darker Side of Dating Apps" (Aevo, U Toronto Press, 2024)

Nov 26, 2025

Treena Orchard, an anthropologist and associate professor, dives deep into her memoir, "Sticky, Sexy, Sad," exploring the complexities of swipe culture and dating apps. She shares her reluctant venture into online dating, revealing the darker realities like ghosting and misogyny that lurk behind the glossy façade. Treena emphasizes the importance of maintaining integrity and genuine connections in a swipe-dependent world, while also critiquing the sanitized narratives of modern entrepreneurship in dating. Her unique blend of personal narrative and anthropological insight offers a compelling look into contemporary relationships.

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ANECDOTE

From Notes To A Book

Treena Orchard began writing simply to make sense of the chaos she experienced on dating apps.
Within three months of swiping she had 60,000 words and realized a book existed.

INSIGHT

Choosing Memoir Over Academic Format

Orchard realized her app story wouldn't fit a traditional academic book and chose a creative memoir form.
She wanted a public-facing book that blended scholarship and personal narrative.

ADVICE

Let Editors Tighten Structure

Editors advised Orchard to shorten long chapter titles and broaden scope beyond one app.
She followed editorial homework: five or six short-titled chapters to tighten structure.

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In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Treena Orchard about her memoir, Sticky, Sexy, Sad: Swipe Culture and the Darker Side of Dating Apps (Aevo, U Toronto Press, 2024).

Jane Goodall meets Carrie Bradshaw in Sticky, Sexy, Sad – an insightful, empowering memoir by an anthropologist who lays her own life bare as she explores the cultural matrix of digital courtship.

Lifelong luddite Treena Orchard was a newly sober woman coming off a much-needed break from relationships, reluctantly taking the digital plunge by downloading a dating app. Instead of the fun, easy experiences advertised on swiping platforms, she discovered endless upkeep, ghosting, fleeting moments of sexual connection, and a steady flow of misogyny.

In Sticky, Sexy, Sad, Orchard uses her skills as both an anthropologist who studies sexuality and a sex-positive feminist to explore what it feels like to want love while also resisting the addictive pull of platforms designed to make us swipe-dependent. She asks important questions for those searching for love in the modern era: What are the social and human impacts of using dating apps? How can we maintain our integrity and warm-blooded desire for intimacy while swiping? Can we resist some of the problematic aspects of swipe culture? Is love on dating apps even possible?

Revealing how dating apps are powerful social and sexual technologies that are radically transforming sexuality, relationships, and how we think about ourselves, this remarkable book cracks the code of modern romance. Told with humor and vulnerability, Sticky, Sexy, Sad is a riveting and inspiring guide to staying true to ourselves amid the digitization of love in the twenty-first century.

Treena Orchard is an anthropologist and associate professor in the School of Health Studies at Western University. She researches and engages in activist debates about sexuality, gender, and health among diverse cultural and digital communities. Deeply committed to public scholarship, she regularly writes for and is featured in leading online publications, including Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, and The Conversation.

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