Confession time: I hate dating apps.
On paper, they should be great. You’re have a plethora of options, and you’re in control the whole time. But I cant help but feel like they are slowly chipping away at young people’s ability to form real connections. It creates this sense of almost like an UberEats of romance, where the apps bright colors and algorithms make the experience feel more like a game or subscription service, rather than an earnest effort to find love.
And it appears I’m not the only one who feels this way. Match Group, the online dating conglomerate that owns Tinder, Hinge and Bumble, lost half of their revenue in 2024. With people aged 20-29 having a 63% drop-off in interactions with these apps- more and more people are having app burnout and going off them.
Which is why speed dating events (aka the old fashioned way) is having a resurgence.
So one Thursday night- armed with two of my single friends we headed to a speed dating event.
Nerves were high. It is a very daunting prosect going up to strangers especially when yoire so accustomed to just online interaction.
But pushing through the initial awkwardness, the experience was very lively and entertaining. It helped I’m an extrovert, but I appreciated the unspoken acknowledgement that we were all there for the same purpose and thus didn’t have to beat around the bush.
It forced you to interact with people you perhaps otherwise wouldn’t have “swiped” on. Rather than a shallow visual judgement of a person, compatibility and interest was instead measured by conversation and personalities.
My friend Hannah found immediate success, as she gracefully put it to me she “had someone waiting at the door” at the end of the night and so had to “dash off”
Ultimately- the opportunity to be outside of the “my type bubble” and opening up led to feeling more confident, not only with talking to other people but within myself as well.
And not to flex, but I’ve got a follow up date booked in with someone I met from the event. So- I better go get ready for that.
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