Relationships

Sunday January 6^th is the busiest day of online dating’s high season, with many people downloading apps and swiping right, hoping to find love in the cold winter months, also known as “cuffing season.”

More people are also motivated to find love thanks to New Year’s resolutions (and the cold weather). With the holidays behind us, January is the perfect time to adopt new habits, including trying a new dating app or rejoining one you’ve used before.

Research has shown over the years that the first Sunday of January is generally the best time to download a dating app and start swiping. Most apps have reported a surge in activity on this particular day, as well as generally increased activity during the month of January through February 14^th.

With 2018 in the rearview mirror, dating experts are sharing their predictions for the year that lies ahead. What trends can singles look forward to? How will the online dating industry progress in 2019? Here’s what experts think the new year has in store.

Singles Will Embrace ‘Old-Fashioned’ Dating

Dating is headed back to basics says emotional wellness expert Dr. Natasha Sharma. “People are ready to start ditching the shallow, so-many-choices approach to dating, and move back to more ‘older-fashioned’ ways and alternative ways of meeting people,” she told Global News.

Data from Zoosk backs up Sharma’s prediction. A survey found that online daters were considered more old-fashioned in 2018, and that users who described themselves as old-fashioned in their profiles received 16 percent more messages than those who didn’t. The survey also found a majority of singles still consider holding a door open for someone and paying for the first date to be romantic gestures.

Love is one of life’s most inscrutable experiences, but that hasn’t stopped scientists from trying to solve its mysteries. With each study that’s conducted, we get closer to understanding love, sex, dating, relationships and breakups - and knowledge, as they say, is power. Here are some of the insightful and interesting findings scientists shared about these topics in 2018.

People Aspire To Date Partners Who Are Out Of Their League

One of the year’s most viral studies revealed that the majority of singles who use online dating services tend to message people exactly 25 percent more desirable than they are. The study also found that singles switch up their messaging strategies based on their target’s desirability and that, though the odds of winning over a match who is out of your league may seem slim, it’s not a hopeless cause if you’re willing to make an effort.

Republicans are having a tough time meeting people over popular apps like Tinder, Bumble and OkCupid. So in larger numbers, they are turning to specialty right-wing dating apps to find like-minded matches.

A recent report from Vox examined this trend, noting that a growing number of profiles include the phrase “Trump supporters swipe left” – so that conservatives don’t even get a chance to strike up a conversation. OkCupid and Bumble have allowed members to state up front if they won’t date someone who doesn’t agree with their politics, making it harder for people on opposite sides of the aisle to connect romantically.

Because of the brewing frustration among conservative daters, some new dating apps catering to the excluded crowd have grown in recent months. Righter, Conservatives Only, Trump Singles, Patrio, and Donald Daters all offer a politically-friendly alternative to daters who are feeling discouraged with their current options – including Trump staffers who, according to an article in the Washingtonian, said they were having trouble getting dates in D.C.

We know we shouldn’t compare ourselves to what we see on social media. Everything, from the poreless skin to the sunsets over pristine beaches, is edited and carefully curated. But despite our better judgement, we can’t help feeling envious when we see travelers on picturesque getaways and fashion influencers posing in their flawlessly organized closets.

This compulsion to measure our real lives against the heavily filtered lives we see on social media now extends to our relationships. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are littered with images of #couplegoals that make it easy to draw comparisons to our own relationships and give us unrealistic perceptions of love. According to a survey from Match.com, one third of couples feel their relationship is inadequate after scrolling through snaps of seemingly-perfect partners plastered across social media.

Dating app Bumble announced that it will be sponsoring the seventh annual Prohibition NYE in downtown Los Angeles. The popular New Year’s Eve party has a “Roaring Twenties” theme against the backdrop of the historic Union Station.

The event is organized by McCullough and Ross in partnership with KCRW, and features world-class DJs, a live jazz ensemble, burlesque, and an open bar for guests. Live acts include local artist Classixx and Lyndsay and the All Nighters, according to the event’s PR. To help guests ring in the New Year with appropriate festivity, a ball will drop from the famous art deco ceiling of the train station.

Bumble users will be able to get into the event by showing an active profile on their phones, so if you’re interested in attending, be sure to download the app and set it up before arriving to the yellow-carpeted entrance. There will also be a photo booth, so it’s encouraged to dress for the occasion.