Source: JGI/Jamie Grill / Getty
Here at Madame Noire, we’ve talked extensively about how the landscape of dating has shifted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. To pinpoint some of our coverage, we’ve posted on everything from dating ideas that are considerate of lockdown restrictions, what’s changed and how to date safely amidst these times, and what to do if you’re experiencing FODA.
Now we’re wondering, “What can the course of the last year tell us about the future of dating?”
Luckily, Tinder recently released some insight informed by research conducted on data from their app that answers that very question. While much of the data centers Gen Z — which it noted currently makes “over 50%” of its members and is increasingly becoming a bigger and bigger part of the dating pool — all lot of the insight provided was information anyone looking for love and affection can benefit from, regardless of their age.
First off, the researchers found that “Daters will be more honest and authentic.” According to Tinder, “the pandemic helped many people put things in perspective” which led its users to gain the freedom “to be more truthful and vulnerable about who they are, how they look, and what they’re going through.”
Interestingly, the data also showed that mentions of the words, “anxiety” and “normalize” in people’s bios on the app grew amidst the pandemic (“anxiety” by 31%; “normalize” more than 15X) — and that thousands of its younger users responded to its Put Yourself Out There challenge “by submitting profiles that reflect their authentic selves.”
Another important shift Tinder highlighted in terms of what the future of dating will look like is that “Boundaries will become more transparent.”
Essentially, their research noted that in the aftermath of the pandemic more people have been bringing up discussions surrounding personal boundaries with their matches and potential partners. According to them, throughout the past year “Tinder members used their bios to make their expectations clear: the phrase ‘wear a mask’ went up 100X over the course of the pandemic, ‘boundaries’ is being used more than ever (up 19%), and the term ‘consent’ rose 11%.”
As the app shared, YPulse’s Dating in a Post-COVID World study found signs of more honest discussions happening in the dating scene in light of the pandemic too. The latter’s data corroborated that “17% of daters ‘had a conversation on safety precautions before meeting up’ and 16% ‘asked for consent to physically touch a date.'”
With that in mind, Tinder emphasized that moving forward “conversations about consent more [will be more] commonplace and comfortable in the future. As conversations move to intimate matters, people will use the skills they’ve honed during the pandemic to make dating safer and happier.”
If you’re interested, Tinder had six other predictions on “The Future of Dating” post-Covid that included information and research saying virtual dates are here to stay, everyone is feeling “touch-deprived,” and that many daters will be more okay with being in “undefined” relationships — particularly with people who live close by to them. Read more about Tinder’s insights here.
