We all know that online dating is a minefield, so it’s always interesting (and helpful) to see how everyone else is doing it.
Tinder has just released its 2020 trends report and it’s filled with insights into what people have actually been talking about on the dating app this year.
For the first three months of the year, travel was the most used term on Tinder. This coincides with borders around the world being closed due to COVID-19 and staycations becoming the defining travel experience of 2020.
Meanwhile, Tinder says that support for Black Lives Matter became “a must” for matches in 2020. In fact, there were 55 times as many mentions of the BLM movement on the app than in the previous year.
There were also 122% more mentions of the NHS in May than at the beginning of the year, reflecting the UK’s growing appreciation of the role frontline health workers have played in combatting the pandemic.
Mentions of TikTok grew massively year-on-year as online daters starting sharing more links from the video-posting platform. The most popular song on Tinder was “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, but “WAP” by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion wasn’t far behind.
Tinder daters also fully embraced the government’s rather belated advice to wear a mask to help halt the spread of COVID-19. Mask mentions were up tenfold year-on-year and there were five times as many mentions of “wear a mask” in July than in June.
And perhaps inevitably, Tinder says people switched up their chat-up lines to reflect the pandemic lives we’re living in. Some of the most groan-worthy examples included “Let’s be like COVID and catch each other” and “wash your hands so you can hold mine”.
In a way, it just goes to show that for some daters, a cheesy chat-up line never goes out of fashion.
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How COVID-19 Has Changed The Phases Of Dating