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Online Dating - Trends
Pocketing, cookie jarring, the choice is out and love is in, rise in marriages/relationships that start with online dating, ghosting, breadcrumbing, and diverse relationships are major trends in online dating, especially app-based dating.
ONLINE DATING TRENDS
1. Pocketing
- "This is a term which comes into action when the person you are dating is trying to hide you or put you into a ‘pocket’ so that he or she can conceal you from others (also the people they are close to)".
2. Cookie Jarring
- Cookie Jarring is when one of the two partners is dating other people and “is also not letting you off the hook” i.e. they are cookie jarring the other partner. This is common in online forums where people go on multiple dates. According to the new age millennials, "it is good to be cookie jarring so that there is more than one option to choose from".
3. The Choice is Out and Love is in
- People are now using dating apps for committed relationships and long term dating. This marks that the "marriage era is going to rule all over again” as compared to dating in 2017 and 2018 when most people were into casual dating and avoided long term commitments.
4. Rise in Marriages/Relationships that Start with Online Dating
- While online dating was considered taboo once, now 20% of couples meet online which has more than doubled in the last decade. Nowadays, the probability of meeting a partner online is higher than through family or co-workers.
- Economist Josué Ortega says “When I came across the statistic that one-third of marriages start online and 70% of gay relationships, I was shocked. And the more I talked to people, the more I heard that they'd met their partners on Tinder and other sites”.
- According to the Pew Research Center, online dating has tripled among millennials between the age of 18 and 24 since 2013. Likewise, it has doubled in older adults between the age of 55 and 64 from 2005 to 2015. The PRC also found that the approval of online dating has increased by 15% during this period".
5. Ghosting
- Ghosting trend is mostly when a person suddenly “halts all forms of communication with the person they've been dating, ostensibly hoping the ghosted person will get the hint without the ghoster having to break up with them”.
6. Breadcrumbing
- Another online dating trend is breadcrumbing, in which people continue to leave messages indicating that they might be into you but they aren't into you at all. In other words, breadcrumbing is "leading somebody on with no intention of following through," often to get attention.
7. Diversity in Online Dating
- Online dating from the likes of Tinder in traditional partnering patterns in recent times has seen “greater-than-predicted rise” in interracial marriages.
- According to the Pew Research Center, analysis of recently released survey data from Stanford University finds that couples who meet online are more likely to be diverse in dimensions such as race, ethnicity, education, political party or income.
ANALYSIS
HOW PEOPLE USE ONLINE DATING APPS FOR MARRIAGE, FRIENDSHIP, AND HOOK-UP, I.E., WHAT'S NEW?
- People are now using dating apps for committed relationships, long term dating and “mark that the marriage era is going to rule all over again” as compared to dating in 2017, 2018 when most people were into casual dating and avoided long term commitments.
HOW HAS IT CHANGED?
- Now 50 million people in the US have tried online dating with 84% of the users using online dating to invest in a serious relationship rather than just hook-ups.
- People who first met online rose from about 81% in 2009 to almost 90% in 2017.
IS THERE A STIGMA?
- While online dating was considered taboo once, now 1 in 5 couples meet online which has more than doubled in the last decade. Nowadays, the probability of meeting a partner online is higher than through family or co-workers.
WHERE IS IT GROWING?
- According to a AT&T study, the best states for dating and their most preferred apps are New Hampshire—Tinder, Massachusetts—OkCupid, Rhode Island—PlentyOfFish, Connecticut—Bumble, and Maine—PlentyOfFish.
WITH WHOM IS IT GROWING?
- According to the Pew Research Center, "online dating has tripled among millennials aged from 18 to 24 since 2013. Likewise, it has doubled in older adults aged between 55 and 64 from 2005 to 2015. The PRC also found that the approval of online dating has increased by 15% during this period".
MOST PREFERRED APP?
- Tinder is the top dating app in the US with 17%. It is followed by Match at 15%. Bumble and Plenty of Fish each is at 8%, and OKCupid and Zoosk are at 5%. While 8% chose "Other." 34% of respondents said they don't use dating apps among the 2,033 US consumers surveyed.
YOUR RESEARCH TEAM APPLIED THE FOLLOWING STRATEGY:
We started our research by looking for online dating trends, especially app-based dating on published industry reports and media sources that generally cite such trends such as Knowtechie, Popsugar, Allure among others. We created a list of current trends based on "How people use online dating apps for marriage, friendship, and hook-up, i.e., what's new? How has it changed? Is there a stigma? Where is it growing/shrinking and with whom?"
We then identified the trends as "current trends" based on the following strategy:
- To identify the above-identified list as trends in online dating, we used sources like Forbes and PewResearchCenter among others to corroborate the same. Hence, the trend has been named after corroborating the same with two or more sources that state trends in online dating/online app dating.
- To show them as 'current', we only used data that was published within the last 12 months.