I’ll start by saying that I’m 36 years old, I’m a millennial and using Tinder is not for me. maybe i’m a Rare avis of my generation, because everyone around me insisted on using them.
A few months ago I left it with my partner (if you are in the same situation and need help to overcome it, here are some tips to get over breakup), and seeing myself single again after a long time was a big change, but from the beginning it was clear to me that dating apps weren’t for me, and it doesn’t seem to be for generation Z either.
Although according to data from Tinder its app is the most downloaded by 18 year olds and most of its members are between 18 and 25 years old, it seems that something is changing. It is not that the zetas do not use dating apps, it is that there is a certain disenchantment with their use, which causes them to exist a new flirting trend that like fashion, returns to what was worn.
flirt like it’s always been done
A survey conducted in 2021 to students at the University of Victoria in Canada, revealed that 68% of people were friends with their partner before starting a romantic relationship. Meeting up with acquaintances is what was done before and what seems to be back among generation Z. In fact, according to a survey conducted by the Survey Center on American LifeGeneration Z is more likely to go out with a friend or acquaintance than try it with someone they have never seen in their life and have only met for a match.
The study provides more data: 43% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 say they have been in a relationship with someone they were friends with first. In women the percentage rises to 50%. If we compare it with the following generations, 21% of people over the age of 65 were friends with their partner before they started dating. Zetas double the percentage.
Why Gen Zetas prefer to flirt with acquaintances
For Marta, 25, Zeta and single, this change is due to bad experiences with dating apps. “Many times you meet people who only want sex or who are not looking for the same thing as you but they don’t make it clear to you. I’ve had so many horrible quotes after meeting people in apps what happened”.
And it is not the only one. According to one 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 46% of Americans say their experience with dating apps had been negative. For Fernando, 23, he hasn’t gone too well either. “I prefer to meet someone in a bar or to be introduced by a friend because I have found everything in the applications.”
The journalist Joe Pinsker said in The Atlantic that “the relationships that arise from friendship start from a place of care and warmthwhich means avoiding the exhausting game that can ensue between two date-weary strangers.” Perhaps flirting in a bar, reconnecting with an old acquaintance, or asking your friend to introduce you to her gorgeous older brother or sister. , are the solution to the big question of how to find a partner.
Although there is also another solution: staying single, which according to science, is much better.
Photos | shingi rice, renate vanaga and kelly sikkema in Unsplash
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