In the midst of COVID-19, face-to-face interaction was limited. Restaurants were shut down, plans with friends were postponed, and the closest you could get to someone was 6 feet away.
The pandemic had us watching romantic comedies and eating ice cream alone wishing we could be in a relationship. But maybe there was a way to be close with someone, but not in a physical sense.
That’s where Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, and more online dating apps come into play.
Online dating was the name of the game in 2020. According to statistic from Tinder, 2020 was the busiest year in the app’s history. It broke a record of 3 billion swipes in a single day. Tinder recorded that during the pandemic 60% of its users felt lonely, 40% of Gen Z users came to Tinder looking for new and different people, and conversations were 32% longer during the pandemic.
As more people continue to get the COVID vaccine, the more the world opens up. People are finally able to go on those postponed dates and meet with their dating app matches. The real question is: Will this online relationship last?
Three-in-ten Americans have used a dating site or app and 12% have married or been in a committed relationship with someone they met online, according to Pew Research Center.
Online dating could potentially lead you to the person that you one day marry. With 12% of Americans being in a committed relationship, or married with someone they met online, you could easily be next. The countless dating apps that you can download could hold the person that you could one day marry.
A study published from Sociological Science in 2017 found that heterosexual couples that met online made a quicker transition to marriage than couples that met offline. Maybe the online relationship won’t make it to marriage, but there’s still a chance to have a solid committed relationship.
College students are a solid demographic for many online dating apps. 40% of college students have been in a committed relationship with someone that they met online. It’s also common to come across a dating profile of someone you already know, according to the 67% of college students, according to Pew Research Center.
College student Tommy Pope found his girlfriend of 14 months on Tinder. “I never thought I would actually find someone that I would be in this committed of a relationship with on Tinder,” he said.
Pope said that he first downloaded Tinder at the beginning of the pandemic simply because he was bored. He never had intentions of finding someone he wanted to be in a relationship with, he said it “just kinda happened.”
Pope is among that 44% of college students that have been in a committed relationship with someone they met on a dating app.
When asked about if marriage would be in the books he said, “I mean that’s the plan,” he said with a laugh. “When you’re in a committed relationship, I think the end goal is always marriage. Atleast it definitely should be, or else you should reconsider who you’re in this committed relationship with.”
Another college student, Nicole DeStefano said that she’s never found anyone on any of the dating apps she’s been on.
When asked if she has ever recognized anyone on a dating app she said, “Oh yeah, all the time. It’s awkward when you see people you have class with on a dating app.”
DeStefano fits in that 67% of college students that have recognized someone they’ve known on a dating app.
DeStefano was asked if she thinks she’ll ever find someone to be in a relationship from a dating app and she said, “I honestly don’t know. I would think those (online) relationships could be pretty strong. I mean, the beginning of your relationship is just nonstop talking. You would really be able to get to know someone that way. So I guess we will see where my swiping takes me.”
Online dating seems like the way to go when you hear stories of long-lasting relationships that come from them, but half of Americans said that online dating has had a neither positive nor negative effect on their relationships, according to a study by Pew Research Center.
When being compared to online relationships to real life relationships, 54% of the relationships were just as successful.
Whether you want to download a dating app to find your next relationship, or if you want to find someone in the real world, chances are you can still be successful in your relationship.
For those like Tommy Pope, he’s glad that he downloaded Tinder on one day that he was bored in quarantine because he found the person he wants to spend forever with.
https://www.businessinsider.com/happy-marriage-online-dating-2017-10
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