In Depth:  dating

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Dating apps in decline: What’s our better alternative?

Dating apps in decline: What’s our better alternative?
Emma Sowden Emma Sowden

The sun appears to be setting on the dating app era, and culture is on a mission to re-codify love, but what will we find in the aftermath?

Amidst our hyper-digital age, the tide appears to be turning on the reign of online dating. Despite radically changing the art of modern romance after exploding onto the scene in the early 2010s, today apps like Tinder, Hinge and Bumble are all reporting a steady decline in users. What was branded as an efficient way to connect people sold a promise of dating minus the mess. However, ten years on, people have cottoned onto the reality that online dating carries its own set of messes and mishaps. Those leaving the apps are citing the ways in which these platforms prey on insecurity and cause ‘swipe fatigue’ by overwhelming users with choice.

Single, 30-something – and running out of time?

Single, 30-something – and running out of time?
Rachel Jones Rachel Jones

Netflix reportedly lost a million subscribers in the second quarter of this year as the cost of living crisis bit – but so far I’m hanging in there. I came for Stranger Things 4. I stayed for the second season of my ultimate guilty pleasure: Indian Matchmaking.

It’s a reality show in which Mumbai-based matchmaker Sima Taparia – ‘Sima Aunty’ to her clients– travels across India and the US, making matches for wealthy singletons. Each episode follows a similar pattern. We see successful and glamorous men and women in their 30s living their best life – drinks with friends, sessions in the park with their personal trainer, tours of their chicken-farm machinery business – before they admit to camera that they’d really like to meet that special someone.

Singleness and the ‘new normal’

Singleness and the ‘new normal’
Rachel Jones Rachel Jones

Whatever our situation, we’re all in the process of working out how to thrive in the ever-changing, but never-quite-as-much-as-we’d-like, ‘new normal’. And it strikes me that, for single Christians, there are particular challenges.

Granted, most of this summer’s weddings have been cancelled – at least, those of any size. That may be a pro or a con, depending on whether you view weddings as the most fun a person can have on a Saturday, or more like an all-day endurance sport event.

Dating wisely

Dating wisely
Stuart Burgess

Stuart Burgess describes the blessings that flow from biblical courtship

My first experience of meeting Christians was as a student at university in the 1980s. I was struck by how these young men treated women with great respect. I also noticed how Christians practised restraint and purity in courtship – or dating. Their witness was one reason for my conversion.

Friendship and dating
The Single Track

Friendship and dating
Jacqui Wright

I am coming to this very difficult topic from a position of weakness.

There was a period of 16 years when I had no success in older post-divorce ‘dating’. In fact, I got things hopelessly wrong! On reflection, it was related to three factors: my personality, my past, and God’s providence.

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