Are people really trying to date the old fashioned way? Bela Gandhi thinks so. She's the founder and dating coach at The Smart Dating Academy.
Gandhi said, "I love speed-dating, you walk into an event — women and men or vice versa — you sit down in a chair for five minutes, you talk to a person, you rotate and you meet the next person."
She calls it an efficient way to meet people in real life. And for some, beginning the encounter online just doesn't work. A number of recent headlines say dating app fatigue is here, and it's real.
Neither speed-dating or online dating are anything new at this point, but it does signal that making interpersonal relationships — at least the start of them — is trending toward real life first.
Data from Eventbrite shows that speed-dating events increased by 64% from 2022 to 2023. Events for those wanting to date in person have surged, according to data, as we move farther away from the pandemic era.
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But, the internet still has its foot in the door as artificial intelligence slowly becomes woven into much of what we do. Match.com said 6% of singles turned to AI to help them with dating, and 43% of singles used AI to create their dating profiles.
As many as 37% of those looking to date used AI to write their first message to potential matches on Match.com, according to the site.
Gandhi said to be careful — you want the person to fall in love with you, and not artificial intelligence, or a "bot" as she put it.
