I think Hinge was better when it was new. Probably people who try a new, non-sleazy dating app early on are more serious about meeting someone and more active, so you get more and better matches.
One problem I’ve realized lately is that a lot of people are on dating apps because they feel like they have to be to meet someone, but they don’t actually enjoy chatting online and may not even be very good at it. Apps probably have a stage when they have a high percentage of “online” people who are just better at texting and, for better at worse, on their phones more.
I ran into the opposite a decade ago when I used dating sites. Many women would just be happy chatting forever through text or email to fill an emotional need and never want to meet in person (they could have been cheating, exploring, etc).
I would have a 2-week rule: If we didn't meet in person (or setup something in the future) within 2 weeks, I would move on.
This helped filter out the people that weren't interested in actually meeting.
Two weeks is a really long time. You should’ve cut that down to 3 days. You’re right about there being a lot of women on these platforms who just use it as a validation and emotional need tool. It’s probably most of the interactions men have on the app since these women would be prolific on them and clearly spend more time on the app than women who want to immediately meetup and get into a relationship.
Hinge has a great user interface undermined by the theme of deep intentional relationships
A lot of people join specific dating apps by the theme
So you get a large percent there just because of the pacing and look, and then a large percent of actual dates that are like “wait I thought casual hookups werent part of this app”
Why do you say so? IMO Hinge obscures all the relevant details of a persons profile into the tiny, horizontal scrolling thing. Age, location, family plans, etc. all crammed in here, and then the best real estate dedicated to stupid prompts that are almost invariably “I go crazy for… amazing food!” “One thing you should know about me… My ig @hotgirl”
One problem I’ve realized lately is that a lot of people are on dating apps because they feel like they have to be to meet someone, but they don’t actually enjoy chatting online and may not even be very good at it. Apps probably have a stage when they have a high percentage of “online” people who are just better at texting and, for better at worse, on their phones more.