Swipers, what if I told you that you could put down your phones and meet people IRL? No more dateless messaging cycles. And, certainly no more ghosting. Sounds ideal, right? No, I’m not talking about speed dating, I’m talking about singles events.
Before you clam up, so to speak, let me explain why in-person might be better than the apps alone. Dating apps have ruled the roost for a decade. But studies show that more and more of us are being turned off by “serendipidating”, dating fatigue and ghosting.
There’s no denying it — 21st-century dating sucks. So, maybe it’s time we tried something new. Well, kind of new.
Enter Sarah and Jennie, two university friends who’ve come together with a view to make dating better. Since starting up, their events have completely sold out, every single time. What is it about their events that are so special? They caught up with us here at HuffPost UK to tell us more.
“We’ve spent a long time each evening just sort of chatting about dating and how hard it is,” Sarah tells us. “And it’s not just the whole dating thing. It’s also just meeting people in person becomes so difficult when you get to a certain stage of life.”
Sarah and Jennie, who are both in their thirties, tell HuffPost UK that one evening, they had a thought. Maybe it was time for them to take dating into their own hands.
“Why don’t we just design the events that we want to go to?”, they thought.
And so, pip social was born.
But what do their events look like? And, how are they different from what we *think* a dating event might be? (Read: Awkward).
“We wanted to just design something that was like a little bit more casual, relaxed, like a natural way of meeting people,” says Sarah. “Since COVID Everybody sits behind a screen all day — everyone’s on a laptop. And everyone’s really connected on their phones all the time, but it’s actually just nice to go out.”
Sarah and Jennie both explain how dating apps are built with dating in mind, which can be a pressure pot.
Expectations of finding “the one” can be quickly dashed against the rocks if you can’t secure a date, or a match.
“It’s very easy to go on them and go on lots of dates, and if they don’t work out, feel really down about it,” says Sarah. “What Jen and I’ve tried to create is more of a singles community. You don’t just have to come to a pip social to find a date — or to find a romantic connection. You can just come and meet like-minded single people and make friends if that’s what you want to do.”
She explains that, for them, creating an environment where being single is celebrated was of utmost importance. And that “looking for the one” wasn’t the sole focus of the events.
Setting themselves apart, pip social have teamed up with local businesses and bars to bring singles to spaces that are independently run and have an all ’round cool vibe. Bringing together communities, the events host activities such as pub quizzes and hikes around the surrounding area.
They don’t put restrictions on age ranges, either saying, “We’ve just found it to be kind of like an irrelevant piece of information.”
“On a dating app, you have to set a window of age range,” says Jen, “And so often you meet people in real life that are maybe just a year outside that age range, so you would never have swipe past them on a dating app.”
By opening up what would otherwise limit our dating pool, and in some ways, shrinking down the selection of people to choose from, pip social has taken things back to the old school, with 100% good feedback.
“We want people to come in, regardless of whether they meet her find romance or not,” they say.
With so much success, it begs the question — can the rest of the UK look forward to attending a pip social?
For the time being, you can find pip social throughout Edinburgh, but they have big plans to open up events throughout the country in the new year. Until then, you can try and get your mitts on tickets to their next singles events across the city by checking out their website.
The Christmas Ceilidh sounds particularly fantastic…(Adds to basket).