Jenny’s plan was to go to Chinatown and get some chicken. It was a first date – she’d met a guy on Hinge and arranged to meet at Leicester Square at 6.15pm. After messaging that she was setting off, she hopped on the Northern line. Emerging on the other side, back into phone signal range, she suddenly sees two messages from her date pop up. “Are you pranking me Jenny,” one asked. Then, she realised his WhatsApp photo had disappeared. He’d blocked her. It was 6.17pm – she was two minutes late.
In a TikTok, Jenny revealed that she and her date did eventually meet up – he claimed his WhatsApp had been “glitchy” – but her story took off all the same, serving as apparent proof that dating is currently in the pits. Just days after Jenny posted her TikTok, another video went viral. In it, a woman in New York claimed she walked out on a date after he declined to pay a $3 cheese charge for his burger. The internet swiftly jumped to her date’s defence, but many people also suggested that the woman’s behaviour was indicative of a rotten dating culture. Blocking people at a moment’s notice. Turning encounters into content. Fear of intimacy and fear of rejection battling it out. So, what’s going on?
