Here’s a social experiment for you: ask anyone who is “on the apps” how their love life is going, and watch the light drain from their eyes. Dating has never been easy, but it used to have the promise of fun. Lately, many on the frontline report finding it hard to drum up enthusiasm to go for a drink, let alone find love. A 2020 study of online daters in the US found that 45% felt frustrated by the experience and a more recent survey by the dating app Badoo found that 78% felt stressed and let down by incompatible matches. Another Badoo survey found that millennials spend an average of 90 minutes a day trying to line up a date. “Dating app fatigue,” as it has been termed, is certainly real.
With matches who may not even be real people, opening lines that might have been generated by ChatGPT and conversations that fizzle out as quickly as they start, the appetite for new ways to connect with people for potential romance is high. But do they work? EH
