Advice

Tinder has just launched a new online course in partnership with youth platform Yuvaa to educate young daters on consent.

The 90-minute self-learning course entitled “Let’s Talk Consent” will be available for free on the Coursera platform, and is intended to be a resource for young adults in India to learn about interpersonal consent.

According to CNBC, there are five main topics in the course: “understanding consent in personal relationships, setting and enforcing personal boundaries, recognizing signs of healthy and unhealthy relationships via red, green and gray flags, and navigating online and offline interactions with safety and respect.”

Dating app BLK has launched a new ad campaign in support of black women, encouraging them to be their “authentic selves.”

The “New Year, Real You: #RealNotPerfect” campaign launched in January. The ad was created by Arxna in conjunction with BLK’s in-house marketing team, according to Black Enterprise magazine. The campaign is meant to encourage black women to be their authentic selves in all areas of their lives - professional, educational, and in their personal/ dating lives.

BLK also intends the campaign to challenge societal expectations and to create a “safe space” for black women to express themselves without fear of judgment, according to Black Enterprise.

Clean Slating is the newest dating trend in India to kick off 2024, at least according to dating app Bumble.

The term refers to letting go of past relationships and baggage that you no longer want to hold onto, and starting the year on a clean slate, according to The Deccan Chronicle.

According to the nationwide study, an overwhelming 71 percent of Indians said they are starting the new year on a clean slate, leaving the past behind. Bumble’s findings also revealed that 70 percent of respondents feel that making peace with exes and past relationships going into 2024 gives them a fresh start. Sixty-nine percent say that it will “open them up to new experiences and people,” and 67 percent said it will allow them deeper connections, according to the Chronicle.

Image: Hinge

Hinge is launching a million-dollar social impact fund called One More Hour to help encourage people to meet in real life in response to the loneliness epidemic. The fund will offer $10,000 to $25,000 grants to 501(c)3 groups in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York to develop “fresh, free/low-cost and recurring in-person connection opportunities” for young adults, according to Fast Company.

The idea is to get people engaging more with each other in real life and not just online. The program is intended to fund events that will be organized and ongoing, so that people will feel more encouraged to show up and see what happens.

Hinge’s social impact director Josh Penny told Fast Company that social clubs stand out as a way to combat the loneliness epidemic because of “their welcoming, low-pressure nature.” He adds that telling people to hang out in person doesn’t necessarily work, that you need to offer the structure and support to encourage people to do it.

Renate Nyborg, former CEO of Tinder, is launching new AI-based app Meeno to help people combat loneliness and guide them in their relationships.

According to Euro News, Meeno isn’t a dating app – instead, it acts as a “personal mentor” for navigating relationships. It operates differently from a virtual girlfriend (or boyfriend), therapist, or coach, according to Nyborg. Instead of finding you a date, it will help guide you in understanding relationships, so you can feel more comfortable interacting and connecting in real life.

Nyborg told Euro News that the young people who originally built swipe-based dating apps like Tinder are now moving to build apps that help you return to “real-life connection,” because they find the dating app experience lacking. Recent studies have also pointed to a rise in loneliness since the pandemic, where people were mostly socializing over screens.

Tinder has unveiled a new feature that lets friends and family choose your matches for you.

According to The Verge, Tinder Matchmaker lets users invite their loved ones and trusted friends to view and recommend potential matches, regardless of whether they are on Tinder themselves. How it works: users can start a Matchmaker session via a profile card or in the settings of the app, where they can create a link to share with up to 15 friends and family members. Matchmakers can either login if they are Tinder users themselves, or continue as a guest.

There is a time limit for sharing opinions! The invited matchmakers have only 24 hours to recommend profiles before the link expires. Then the Tinder user can look through the match list, where profiles will be marked as a “recommendation” for those who liked a particular match. (Those rejected profiles won’t be marked at all, and will remain in the running for the user to ultimately decide if they are interested.)