“JustSayHi and Surge have proved to be widely successful at fostering intimate connections even before a pair meets in person”, Gray says. “That’s my biggest impression of what’s going on today”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to a bar and found so many guys glued to their phones, or the countless times I’ve seen people on Tinder while in line at Starbucks, swiping left and right without any single emotion to it.
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According to The Guardian, about 450 million profiles are rated every day on Tinder, and research says membership is growing by 15 per cent each week. Mobile dating apps such as Tinder incorporate fun elements and are dead simple to use.
The Pew study finds online dating has also doubled among 55- to 64-year-olds, though they’re more likely to use traditional means. Nine percent of the survey participants had used a dating app on their cellphone – three times more than in early 2013, when just 3 percent reported using mobile apps. Almost six-in-ten college graduates (58%) know someone who uses online dating, and almost half (46%) know someone who has entered into a marriage or long-term partnership with someone they met via online dating.
“Definitely the most surprising aspect is the huge jump in online dating use by very young adults, specifically people in their late teens and early 20s”, said Aaron Smith, Pew associate director of research. “I traveled a lot for hockey and it was always interesting meeting new people from different areas and getting to know them”.
Women appeared more concerned about safety: 53 percent of female online daters said it was more unsafe than other ways of meeting a new partner, compared with 38 percent of males.
For young adults in particular, this overall increase in online dating usage has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the use of mobile dating apps.
Endless choice is what propelled comedian Aziz Ansari to write Modern Romance, in which he confesses to finding the whole ritual exhausting. “You don’t really meet people at work, and the bar scene is tiresome … from a guy’s point of view, striking up a conversation at a bar is really, really hard. Now you don’t have jump through the hoops, like chatting people up at bars or parties”, Roberts said. His solution was to quit cold turkey.
In 2013, only 10 per cent in that age group used online dating.
“They speak to way young people are engaging in content”, he added.
Stanford University professor Michael Rosenfeld wrote in a 2012 paper that the Internet could be helpful for people in “thin” dating markets, ones with relatively fewer options for possible partners in their regular life. Think a lesbian or gay person living in a small southern town, for example.
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The poll found that most users of online dating tools had a positive experience although some did recognize potential dangers.
