Many of our cities in north america don’t have good access to third places anymore, due to both availability and cost.
I refuse to use online dating/friendship services so I struggle to meet friends and partners in the new citiy I moved to. Everyone at the local bar scenes is 15-30 years older than me, my outdoor local areas are homeless emcampments or riddled with needles and litter. I’ve met some people at my local climbing gym, but I find it difficult to get there between the cost of climbing and my physical labour job.
It almost feels like if you don’t make the plans online you don’t get to meet/hang out with people anymore and I’m not a huge fan of that.
Not OP, but the usual reply I see is, because dating companies are incentivized to keep you on their app, not get you a happy relationship, so you need to go through hundreds of dates and thousands of rejections, which can be mentally taxing.
I don’t have the energy to swipe new partners every week, I’m not a fan of hook up culture, anyone I’ve met on the apps keep using the apps while I see them. I’m not super big into social media and frequently don’t have service at work, I’ve had people on the apps complain 20+ minutes is unacceptable as a response time. I don’t take many pics of myself to make a good profile. Overall the experience is discouraging and stressful.
Yeah I guess I can see that. I’ve always seen the apps as not owing me anything, matches are pretty rare, but it’s kind of fun to get them and chat with random people. Most of the chats never go anywhere but again, I don’t really expect them to. Just putting zero pressure on it has worked for me.
Either I don’t use any online dating and have a zero % chance to meet someone using it, or I use it, and get that up to a solid 1%. Still low, but infinitely better than 0.
Not OP but I hear so many stories of sexual harassment, of people insisting on having sex when you clearly state in your profile you are not looking for a hookup and calling you names when you do not give in, “sour grapes” treatment for rejection for any reason really (“I just messaged you out of pity!” stuff), of gay people getting messaged by straight ones thinking they can “turn” the gay person… as a woman lucky enough to have never experienced this kind of trash in my life, I am NOT willing to open the floodgates to harassment or this level of rudeness and experience it for the first time.
It helps that although it would be nice to have a partner, I know I could be happy and fulfilled without one, so I’ll never have a desperate need for a partner that pushes me to risk harassment and use an app.
Online dating is so shit for the majority of hetero dudes. You’re lucky if you match with somebody, luckier if you get to have some kind of discussion that doesn’t end after a few messages, even luckier if it ends in a date, amazingly lucky if anything physical happens, and incredibly lucky if it turns into a relationship.
Men are expected to initiate, keep the discussion alive, ask out, keep the woman entertained, and be grateful they were chosen. It only gets worse online.
That’s how I found out I might be a little attractive. Lots of stories about apps being ghost towns and it being hard to talk to people. I didn’t struggle much to talk to people, went on dates and found my now fiancee that way.
You’re one of the lucky few. I bet online apps are great for attractive dudes with lots of great pictures lol.
Thanks to Tinder I had the best and the worst first dates in my life.
But both long term girlfriends and soon-to-be-my-wife I met through friends
this power imbalance is bad for everyone as well, if you meet up with someone via these (if are not male presenting), there is a concerningly high chance that you get sexually assaulted, I am terrified how common this seems to be among the women I’ve talked to
This is partly because the apps suck (because of capitalism/profit motive) and partly because we all suck.
Many people of all genders won’t do better than “hey”. And then complain that they’re not having good experiences. Sometimes it’s garbage in, garbage out, my dudes.
I also get a lot of weird dead ends. Their profile will be like “I love elden ring”. You’ll be like “elden ring is a masterpiece! Did you play the new expansion yet?” They’ll be like “no”. End of messages. My dude. That’s not how this works. In real life, fine, maybe you can give a short answer and see what they do, read some body language. But in an asynchronous text only communication? That’s not pulling your weight. And if you’re not actually interested, just unmatch. If you don’t have time , don’t reply at all. It’s async. Come back later.
Maybe some of these people match with each other and are very happy with “what’s up?” “nm u?” “Im good” forever.
How is this possible if 50% of the couples meet online? Are you in the US and using one of the major dating apps?
When you go to a friend’s bday party, try not approaching any women and not striking a conversation. How many times will you be approached. Report us your results.
people have no friends anymore
And due to urban sprawl, everyone gets into their car in their garage, drives to work, then drives back to their garage. There’s no room for walking to the neighborhood pub, convenience store, pharmacy, etc and bumping into neighbors on the way.
This belongs in boringdystopia.
What is the definition of “online” for this chart? The first website wasn’t even up until 1991, so how can the line start at 1980?
BBS’es and Fidonet through modem were there before the web.
Don’t think many found each other on BBS’s but at least they could download low res porn.
In the early 1980s, ASCII porn :) NSFW: GIRL82.TXT, ripped by Usagi Electric
BBSes were a thing for decades before the Web.
The WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) was started in 1985.
It’s a survey, so it relies on the surveyed to tell accurately the date they meet and how, so I won’t be surprised that the line here is incorrect.
Or maybe they refer to using classified ads in the newspaper or over of those “romantic meeting agency” (I don’t know the name in English, in French it is agence de rencontre) that existed back in the day
