Relationships

Image: Bumble

Dating app Bumble is going all-in on its mission to empower women. The latest move is launching a new ad campaign to help combat loneliness, featuring activist and actress Jameela Jamil.

The #askingforafriend campaign launches August 4th in honor of International Friendship Day, and will focus on encouraging Bumble users to build friendships to counter the growing problem of loneliness around the world. According to studies, social media is part of the problem, with one in five people saying browsing through their feeds makes them feel lonely.

After shuttering Google+ in April, Google is taking another stab at social networking. The company is currently testing Shoelace, a Meetup-esque network focused on connecting people with similar hobbies and interests.

Shoelace is a hyperlocal mobile app that promises to “tie” people together based on their interests, like two laces on a shoe. Users can create listings for events and activities (fittingly called “Loops” on the app) they’re participating in, then invite other people to join them. Invitations can be sent to friends or strangers, whether or not they are fellow Shoelace members. Shoelace also generates personalized daily recommendations help users find the most interesting things happening in their area.

Researchers have long been fascinated by the ways online dating has changed how we meet and match. A Pew Research Center analysis of recently released survey data from Stanford University found that online daters are more likely to choose partners who are different from them in race or ethnicity, income level, education or political affiliation.

The Stanford survey, How Couples Meet and Stay Together 2017, collected answers from 3,510 U.S. adults who are currently married, currently in a relationship, or who have ever previously been in a relationship. Couples who met online were more likely to date someone with a different education level, political ideology or race/ethnicity than couples who met offline. The difference between those who met online and offline was particularly significant for political party and race/ethnicity.

Image: Cosmopolitan

Single life is full of ups and downs, and while the dramatic moments are not always fun to live through, they make for great entertainment. Tinder has partnered with women’s lifestyle magazine Cosmopolitan to create a branded podcast that digs into what dating is really like across the United States.

‘Single, Swipe, Repeat’ is a 12-episode audio show hosted by Faye Brennan, Sex & Relationships Director of Cosmopolitan. Brennan is joined each week by a celebrity guest host to break down the most memorable, hilarious, emotional, romantic and relatable dating stories shared by Tinder users throughout the country.

Hot on the heels of Match’s announcement that its new service, Ask Match, will make dating coaches available for one-on-one phone sessions, Ashley Madison is planning a coaching service of its own. The dating site for affair seekers recently revealed it has been testing a "cheating coaches" feature in Brazil and the United States since March of this year.

Hiring a coach to improve your romantic game is nothing new, but Ashley Madison may be the first to apply the idea to infidelity. The feature will allow users to search for an available coach through the mobile app, then purchase time with them via a credits system. Each credit costs around 50 cents, according to Business Insider. A continuous conversation with a coach will set you back eight credits.

A new study from Harvard University found that when people use dating apps, they are 2.7 to 16.2 percent more likely to have an eating disorder than those who don’t use the apps.

Researchers from Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health reported that those who used dating apps were more likely to abuse laxatives or use “unhealthy weight management practices,” according to a report from CNBC regarding the study.

Dating apps like Tinder and others feature photos prominently, with users swiping left and right based on how a potential match looks. This points to why dating app users might be more self-conscious about their bodies and try unhealthy tactics to lose weight.