Move Over, Tinder! Matchmakers Are Using Twitter & E-Mail To Help People Date

People are no longer using dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble to find love, it appears. Now, people are using regular social media apps like Twitter and TikTok to meet their better halves, an MIT report claims.

According to the MIT Technology Review report, people on dating apps are feeling burnt out and exhausted. They're now reverting to dating ways of the internet's wee days, using ideas like newsletters and e-mails to find a perfect match.

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Dating app burnout?

The report lists two instances of matters being taken into the user's hands, literally. Katherine D. Morgan who felt "super burnt out" on dating apps started a Twitter thread in July to see how the platform would react to dating needs.

Also read: Abstinent Woman Creates Dating App For People Who Don't Want To Have Sex

The thread is essentially a modern take on how social media functioned about a decade ago. Called "SINGLE AND READY TO MINGLE THREAD", the thread urges users to respond with their basic details including a photo, three hobbies, sexual orientation, and pronouns among many.

?SINGLE AND READY TO MINGLE THREAD? Reply to this thread with the following:

-A photo
-Three hobbies!
-ASL/ if okay with long distance!
-Pronouns!
-Sexual orientation if you want!

If you see someone you like, like their tweet! They¡¯ll slide into your DMs if interested! ??

¡ª ¡°Rent¡¯s Due on the First¡± ? (@blktinabelcher) July 29, 2021

Not much later, the thread took off - arranging multiple dates in Morgan's hometown Portland in US state of Oregon. The thread gets responses even today.

Adding human to dating experience

Similarly, Randa Sakallah launched "Hot Singles" in December 2020 to end her dating woes. In conversation with MIT, Sakallah explained that she was "sick of swiping".

For Sakallah, using the power of e-mail newsletters to help find love reaped benefits. For starters, she used Substack to create a newsletter, and users could apply via Google Form to be featured. The profile is then send to an "audience of thousands."

Tinder

Sakallah is attempting to take away the algorithm-like automated experience of contemporary dating apps by delivering only one person's profile via e-mail each Friday instead of flooding the person with 100s of accounts, as is true for dating apps.

"You really want to think about the whole person," she told MIT.

Also read: This Guy¡¯s Trying To Stop Our Tech Addictions, Starting With Porn

To be fair, swiping on Tinder/Bumble/Hinge can be pretty exhausting. No wonder Tinder used to show "keep playing" directive if users were losing interest in the app. In many ways, the build of these apps resembles casual games like the much loved and hated Flappy Bird.

All faces on dating apps are reduced to caricatures that may be boosted or rejected. Dating apps can be overwhelming due to the wide pool and dating range such apps offer.

Have you ever experienced dating app fatigue? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of tech and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

Citation

Basu, T. (2021a, November 8). Forget dating apps: Here¡¯s how the net¡¯s newest matchmakers help you find love. MIT Technology Review.