Why the dating game is changing
by Ryan Deluchi
Photo by Ave Calvar on Unsplash
In case you didn’t know, it’s cuffing season in the Northern hemisphere.
The theory goes that as we retreat indoors, the thought of going it alone through the cold winter months is too much to bear for many singles. Better to shackle yourself to another lonely soul than suffer the ignominy of watching The Holiday on your own.
Whether young singletons will really be flocking to settle down having just emerged from the best part of two years of enforced hibernation is certainly up for debate. But regardless of intention, many will once again be turning to dating apps for the solution.
Since their arrival in the early ‘10s, dating apps have firmly established themselves as the go-to for singles, following a not dissimilar trajectory to the likes of Instagram when it comes to their surge into mainstream culture.
It therefore shouldn’t be surprising that they are now facing the same challenges to these similarly-aged behemoth social networks, having built their products for young people who are now, a decade on, very much not young people any more.
Unfortunately for these apps, the flaws that have long been acknowledged, yet generally glossed over by previous generations, are increasingly looking like deal-breakers for Gen Z.
Toxic misogyny, fake curated lifestyles, intrinsically exclusive (to the point of racist) algorithms, and a fundamental bias towards transience versus meaning when it comes to meeting people - despite what the slogans will have you believe - are all things that don’t chime too well with young people in 2021.
The fear for the big dating apps is (or should be) that this generation of singletons are far more likely to turn their apathy into action. A ‘see it, fix it’ attitude means the real winners in the dating scene over the coming years are likely to have been conceived, or at least heavily influenced, by young founders and creators.
That doesn't necessarily mean the end of dating apps - Hinge’s recent addition of voice notes was a clear response to a generational push back on inauthenticity - but we’re already seeing new interpretations that are clearly trying to dismantle everything that this generation hates about them.
In the UK, the dating app Thursday is already causing a stir with its unique approach of only being usable on one day per week. Others such as The Sauce remove the need for photos, whilst POM (Power of Music) matches users based on...well, you’ve guessed it.
Even platforms like TikTok are increasingly being used as a means to meet other people. After all, if it can help you become a global megastar, why couldn’t it help you find a partner? For many, the chances of either happening probably feel quite similar.
It’s this kind of common sense approach that will likely lead to further iterations of what meeting people looks like this decade. The likes of Tinder and Bumble will play a part, but they might not be the only viable solution. For millions of young singles around the world who find themselves trapped in the vicious ‘delete and download’ cycle, that’s likely to come as a huge relief.