If polyamory if for you, then you might be interested in the ‘situationship’
(Picture: Pixabay)Tinder is embracing one of the biggest trends in dating; the “situationship”. The app’s new “relationship goals” feature lets members indicate what they want, from a date, a casual hook-up, or something more serious, or even a mixture of the two.
Members can choose from six tags for their profile, each with an accompanying emoji, including long-term partner; long-term, open to short; short-term, open to long; short-term fun; new friends; or still figuring it out. Tinder will also check in with users weekly to ask if their relationship goals still match their needs.
The move sees Tinder striving to keep up with a generational shift in dating towards “situationships”. These tend to be more transparent, low-pressure relationships with clear-cut boundaries, according to the Evening Standard’s resident dating expert, Lucy Holden.
“The situationship is becoming a valid relationship status,” she said. “Being in a ‘situationship’ allows you to play the field as long as everyone is on the same page and is defined as more than a hook-up, but less of a traditional relationship.”
Even before today’s update, Tinder’s youthful user base was already latching on to the term “situationship” as a way to express what they wanted from a relationship. The app witnessed a 49 per cent increase in members adding the phrase to their bios this year, the company revealed in its annual trends report.
Holden claims the situationship, and the flexible nature of contemporary dating that it represents, isn’t just a fad.
“Whilst we’ve seen a lot of daters choose to consider monogamy something of the past, and ethical non-monogamy and polyamory as more modern and preferable, it’s open-mindedness and clarity which all daters have been seeking in 2022 and will continue to chase in 2023,” she said.
Whether Tinder can capitalise on the emergence of “situationships” remains to be seen. The app has been working hard to overcome its image as a hook-up app at a time when daters have a raft of alternatives to choose from, according to Holden. Rival Bumble, for instance, has found success by empowering women to make the first move.
Tinder’s Blind Date feature, which prevented users from viewing each other’s profile while chatting, was a big hit — with an average of 200,000 members using it per day by the end of this year. On the other hand, descriptive updates like “relationship goals” could help Tinder users cut to the chase.
“Daters are keen to have their own and their match’s intentions laid out from the off in order not to waste time and feeling,” Holden added..
