Being cool and aloof is officially going out of style and people are finally doing what we once thought of as unthinkable – texting back quickly.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Gone are the days of coming up with an arbitrary length of time to reply so you didn’t appear too keen. Say goodbye to those tortured attempts to calculate just when the perfect response window is. Cheerio to that horrendous panic that you’ve opened the message too clearly, and now your crush is getting the ick.
It’s time to unleash your inner keen demon, because it’s now acceptable to actually reply to the one (or more) you’re lusting over within 30 minutes.
Well, this is according to Tinder’s ‘The Future of Dating 2023’ report, which found that “young daters are done with playing games and no longer take time for granted” – bringing in a “renaissance in dating.”
By drawing from a series of different surveys, the global platform found that Gen Zers are bucking yet another trend and are just not messing about their dates about.
An in-app survey among users aged between 18 and 24 in the UK, US and Australia found 77% reply to a crush within 30 minutes, a whopping 40% respond within five minutes and over a third reply immediately.
The dating platform attributed this change in mindset to all that time we spent in lockdown which means these keen singles no longer take dating for granted.
A different study of 4,000 actively dating Gen Zers (conducted earlier this year by OnePoll for Tinder) also found 89% of young singles feeling like they’re making up for lost time.
Tinder concluded: “These digital natives felt at home online and didn’t see the need for perfectly curated profiles or extensively filtered photos.
“They also didn’t see the need for playing the mind games of yore when it came to dating either.”
What’s even better is that they’re being more considerate of who they’re dating – internal Tinder data suggested 18 to 25 year olds are 32% less likely to ghost someone than those aged 33 and above.
A further 51% of those surveyed also agreed that they’re constantly looking for ways to fit dating around their daily schedules, according to an Opinium poll of 4,000 33 to 38 year olds.
And, it turns out more than half of millennials surveyed think this is a good idea (even though playing games has been a hallmark of the dating scene for the last few decades.)
Three in four 33 to 38 year olds admitted things like playing hard to get, giving mixed signals, playing the field were “normal” when they were between 18 and 25.
But now, Gen Z is prioritising qualities like loyalty (79%), respect (78%) and open-mindedness (61%) over looks (56%), according to Tinder.
And even though tying the knot is not high up on their priorities either, the platform’s Global Relationship Insights expert Paul Brunson concluded: “Gen Z will have the most successful marriages yet. Why? Because they’re investing in emotional well-being and clear communication.”
Sounds like the end of the “player” era just might be nigh....