Ester, a 28-year-old master’s student, used to have one night stands but now she picks up a pizza on the way home instead. She gets to spend more of the night with her friends, sleeps better, is more likely to take her makeup off, and less likely to suffer from hangover anxiety. Her view — that one night stands are “time-consuming and unfulfilling” — is becoming increasingly common. A recent study by dating app Match.com found that only eight per cent of those interviewed admitted to having a one night stand.
While a similar survey from matchmaking site Plenty of Fish found that over half (51 per cent) of singles think one night stands are a thing of the past, with men more likely to agree with this idea (61 per cent v 45 per cent of women). You see this reflected all over social media. On TikTok, videos about one-night-stands-gone-wrong have been going viral for months. Despite the promise of a “hot vax summer” last year, we’ve become significantly more restrained.
