Single

LinkedIn is having a moment with romance. In a recent study, more than half of singles are turning to the career networking platform to find dates.

According to Dating News, a majority of 61 percent of singles aged 35 to 40 found dates on LinkedIn. Overall, 52 percent of all respondents ages 20 to 40 have found their dates on the business networking platform, highlighting its unexpected new role.

Interestingly, the second-best way that people say they are finding dates (48 percent) is through being set up on blind dates. Only 45 percent of respondents reported finding luck on online dating sites in comparison.

Older daters are more apt to have successfully met people via dating sites – half of respondents between 35 and 40 years old said they have met people on dating sites compared to only 33 percent of people between 20 and 24 years old, according to Dating News. Gen Z appears more open to meeting people outside of dating sites than Millennials, who came of age when dating apps launched and tend to gravitate to those platforms.

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.”

Image: Bumble

Dating app Bumble launched Deception Detector, an AI-based feature that aims to cut down on bots and fake profiles.

According to ZD Net, the new feature leverages the machine learning-based technology to help identify fake, scam or spam profiles on the app before the user comes into contact with them. The feature can assess the authenticity of a profile and, according to Bumble’s test, supported automatically blocking 95 percent of accounts identified as spam or scam by the company.

Bumble was quick to add that the AI-based feature will be used in conjunction with “dedicated human support” for added safety for its members.

Bumble also said in its release that within the first two months of the technology’s introduction, the platform saw member reports of spam, scam, and fake accounts reduced by 45%.

Teri Hatcher, the popular actress who starred in the hit tv series Desperate Housewives and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, has shared that she was kicked off dating app Hinge after being accused of posting a fake profile.

The actress spoke about the incident in an episode of Getting Grilled with Curtis Stone when he asked her about her dating life.

"I've tried them all, and I tried my latest one. I tried Hinge," she told host Curtis Stone while sharing that she doesn't "meet people," according to People Magazine.

OkCupid just celebrated its 20th anniversary and released some interesting dating trends as we start 2024, driven mostly by its younger users. The irreverent dating app has attracted a wide array of singles over the years, thanks to its unique question and answer format for people to get to know each other.

The dating app surveyed close to one million of its users and found that almost 80 percent consider themselves independent daters, and those who declare themselves as independent are receiving 5 percent more likes compared to people who say they aren’t.

In fact, according to the company's blog post, in 2023 there was a 181 percent increase in mentions of “independent” on OkCupid profiles, which points to healthier dating trends in 2024. Other dating apps have also found their users (especially younger Gen Z daters) want to focus on their mental health and well-being before getting involved in a new relationship, so it seems to be a trend.

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.