 Claire"The first guy I ever met up with from a dating app seemed pretty cool until we started talking about our families and realized that we were cousins. I haven't found the love of my life yet on Tinder, but I did make family reunions a lot more awkward." |  Dillon & Lucy"My process is pretty simple. I’m not on Facebook, I’m not on anything, social media, Twitter, anything. My friends put me on that and then that was it. Then she came up and the thing she said that attracted me was "my faith is important to me," and my faith is important to me too. That’s pretty much it. I had always heard from my friends that when you meet the person you are going to marry you will know and I was like "don’t tell me that" but then I met Lucy and I knew." |  Hayden"Girls you meet on dating apps are typically not genuine and it's a false promise with someone you think you're going to vibe with but then you never do but you keep coming back for more for some reason." |  Ellen & Cooper(photo courtesy of Ellen Hammond) "Cooper and I actually matched on Tinder freshman year but never met in person and ultimately pursued other people. Flash forward to junior year and we matched on Bumble over Thanksgiving break. I messaged him and we caught up again. We talked every day and met for the first time over Christmas break where we went to the Trail of Lights. We liked each other a lot and talked every single day. We started dating June 2 so we have been together almost 4 months." |  Phil"I downloaded it because it seemed like fun at the time. Something to do, I guess. To be honest though, I don't remember the last time I even opened the app." |
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 Darah"We met on Bumble when I was in Chicago for the summer. I really didn't want to see him after the first date but he took me sailing on the second date so i was like "yeah ok." Then it just spiraled out of control and next thing I knew I was with him in Michigan one weekend for one of his sailing regatas. He visited Austin the other weekend and I realized our little summer fling should have stayed up north. Nice guy though." |  Hannah"The advertising is everywhere - Bumble, Tinder, all of them. And it's working. You see all of their beautiful and creative ads and think "hm, maybe that's something I should be a part of." |  Avery & Jon (and Leo)(photo courtesy of Avery Westerlund) "After about 2 weeks of talking on Tinder, I realized that the same boy I had matched with had been sitting behind me in my Business Law class. I was horribly embarrassed and didn't tell him until our last day of class. We studied for our final together, then went on our first date 3 days later. The rest was history. We've been together about 9 months now and for my 22nd birthday, Jon bought me Leo, our mini Australian Shepherd puppy." |  James"The biggest thing I've learned on these things is that there is so much bullshit you have to go through to get there. Too many girls fall through on you. In real life, you just ask for the number and you go on the date." |  Sydney"I thought I wanted to see who was actually out there and actually interested in dating, but I deleted it because it felt unnatural and just can't replace organic relationships." |
humans of
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DATING APPS: THE MILLENNIAL'S SOCIAL PHENOMENON
Let's face it, dating can be a somewhat tricky, usually weird, incredibly awkward time for everyone involved - especially in those formative college years. The nerves and anxiety that accompany dating or just walking up to the cute boy at the bar can seem too hard to bare. That's where dating apps come in. The most prevalent dating trend in today's world requires an immense amount of swiping right, flirty messages, and the occassional winky-face Emoji. KNUCKLEHEAD NEWS takes you into the world of online dating for millennials - what it's like, who's doing it, and what the future of meeting significant others looks like in a society of intense online mingling.
Wo-Man on the Street
We hit the streets of Austin, TX to ask about dating app use, what they're about, and whether or not online dating is the way of the future!
Making an Online Dating Profile
Wondering what a dating app even looks like? Interested in joining a site but don't know how?
Is it too much work? We tested out Bumble for you!
Online dating has become increasingly more popular & socially "normal."
These stats, taken from PEW Research Center, show just how much online dating has grown in the past 10+ years.
MOST POPULAR BUMBLE AREAS
TINDER USES
THIS CAN WORK
when online dating goes right
let's get started
Based on our random sampling, we found that the most popular dating platforms for millennials were
Bumble & Tinder. Here are some fun facts we learned about the two.
The vivacious blender whips up a frothy mocha java latte concoction behind the counter; a disgruntled middle-aged man looking so intently at his computer screen pounds away on the keyboard; two 20-year-old girls behind giant sunglasses discuss their crazy Thursday night in line. I slide into a booth at the crowded Starbucks and admire the glowing couple sitting across from me inserting straws into their Grande cups and giggling about something silly as lovebirds do.
I find out that these lovebirds are recently married. Lucy and Dillon Walker just got back from an African Safari honeymoon four days before. The young, blissful couple met almost two years ago when Lucy swiped right on Dillon’s photo on the popular dating app, Bumble. The rest is history and marriage and typical Starbucks orders for these two.
“My process is pretty simple. I’m not on Facebook. I’m not on anything, social media. Twitter, anything. My friends put me on that and then that was it,” Dillon explained about his Bumble beginnings.
This seems to be pretty typical for most dating app users: “my friend made me do it.” However, even your friend making you an account can result in success.
Both Lucy and Dillon agreed that Bumble was the best option for them compared to other dating apps. They found that it was more about dating and less about hooking up. While the initial step to join the app was daunting, they knew that this was a potentially easier avenue to dating and the reward could be a lifetime of happiness.
“I had to lower my pride because I got on this and I was like ok I’m getting on this to date,” Lucy said in regards to why she joined Bumble. “I just think it’s harder now to meet people with, like, work because most jobs are more demanding or you’re traveling a lot. This is an easier way to meet someone.”
What makes Bumble different is that the girl is the one to strike up the conversation. Once the girl has a match, she has 24 hours to send a message to the guy and await his response. The ball is in the ladies’ court. The girls are leading the way. This “not-so-typical” online dating experience relieves pressure for the guy, but could also lay on some intimidation and self-consciousness.
“I think it was fine. I liked it because you are out of control. It’s like hey hopefully she wants to talk to me or at least say hi,” said Dillon on his thoughts about girls making the first move.
Going into dating and especially online dating, the last thing anyone wants to do is lower their standards. Whether it be what your significant other is involved in, passionate about, believes to be true or how they spend their Saturday nights. These aspects of a person’s life are definitive and important when getting to know someone. Specifically, these characteristics could potentially cause for some serious conflict if the two people are not on the same page.
For Lucy, she ran into trouble finding guys she could relate to from the beginning. Her faith is something that is really important to her and she was not sure if the guys she was matching up with were on the same page about this. Although online dating seemed easier, it was not all heart eyes and boxes of chocolates. It became exhausting filtering through hundreds of dudes and not finding a single possibility.
“I got annoyed because I feel like I would go through a ton of guys and either they were like…you could tell right away that’s not what I’m wanting, or they looked like something I might want and then we started talking and I was like oh gosh no. So I decided to put something more about my faith on there. From there, the filter got better for who I was looking for,” Lucy said about her experience sifting through all of the guys.
Dillon said the fact that Lucy had listed that her faith is important to her, was the reason he decided to swipe right when flipping through all the girls.
“Then she came up and the thing she said that attracted me was "my faith is important to me," and my faith is important to me too. That’s pretty much it,” Dillon explains.
The lovebirds are very thankful for Bumble and have even encouraged their friends to get on and see if they can have success as well.
“A lot of my friends are now starting to get on because they want to start dating someone seriously and have seen the success Dillon and I have had,” Lucy describes as she sips her iced coffee.
With technology becoming more advanced each day, dating apps will continue to grow and relationships amongst dating app users will flourish.
Who knows, maybe one day we’ll all be swiping right, or worse, left.