"How I met your mother? I used a dating app"
Whatever we need, the internet provides. Looking for a pastime activity? Watch videos on YouTube. Your otherwise boring soup needs a twist? Find new recipes online. Want to meet your next love? Swipe right.
Debates about whether or not online dating has replaced real-life interactions—the cinematic kiss-under-the-rains, the coffee shop meet-cutes and whatever swoon-worthy scenarios Jane Austen came up with—are ancient. Dating apps are here to stay and calling it taboo is so ‘2000-and-late.’ Do you reckon Romeo and Juliet's communication fiasco would take place if they had smartphones for dating?
At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, everybody was collectively robbed of time—the time to bond with loved ones, mingle with friends and meet strangers, you name it. For the hopeless romantics, this meant one thing: their one true love was absorbed by the digital sphere and Cupid is the algorithm bound to sync their profiles on the right app, at the right time.
See also: Crazy Smart Asia: Joseph Phua—Building Southeast Asia’s Biggest Dating Platform
Quarantines are no match for people whose hearts are fueled by romance
No. It’s true, and we have Lucille McCart, the communications director of the online dating app Bumble to back us up. In an exclusive interview with Tatler Asia, McCart explains the dynamics of swiping left and right amid the pandemic.
“The number one insight we have observed at Bumble over the last two years since the pandemic began is that the desire to connect and engage and socialise is part of the universal human experience, and when people’s ability to gather in person is limited, either through lockdowns, social distancing restrictions, or fear of contracting or spreading the virus, apps like Bumble provide an important platform for connection,” she says.
Towards the end of 2021 in the Philippines, the online dating platform observed that almost half or 49 percent of people surveyed believe that it is possible for one to fall in love through dating apps. Forty-two percent said they used an online dating app within the past year, and the remaining 30 percent said they have been using dating apps more since the pandemic began.