I met my husband on E-Harmony. We’ve been together for 8.5 years. But similar to you, I used the site for several years before meeting him. I’m grateful it worked for me even if it took some time! But the apps now sound much worse. Back when I did the online dating, I had to pay a monthly fee and take a 45 minute profile quiz. And I felt like those two parameters meant you might be meeting a few other people who are also taking it seriously.
That's how my dad and step-mom met, and they've been together for years as well! I do think any positive change in the world of dating (online or not) is going to take higher barriers to entry. Not necessarily cost, but requiring participants to put time and work in to be a part of it & signal that they're committed.
This is fascinating. I've always been glad that I met my husband >20 years ago before dating apps were a thing - because they sound incredibly dispiriting to use. That said, as someone who watched the first few seasons, I always thought that Love is Blind was pretty strikingly unsuccessful - so many of the couples break up. But I hadn't thought about comparing the success rate to the app rate - a low bar, I guess, but a valid one. I love the audio only pod concept.
All great points, Darby! On the success rate, I would chalk a good number of the failures on the show to the incentives of reality tv to create drama & the ticking clock of having to get engaged and married in such a short period of time. If we were to remove those elements, I would think that relationships started in the pods would wind up with a significantly higher success rate than the show, let alone dating apps.
I met my husband on E-Harmony. We’ve been together for 8.5 years. But similar to you, I used the site for several years before meeting him. I’m grateful it worked for me even if it took some time! But the apps now sound much worse. Back when I did the online dating, I had to pay a monthly fee and take a 45 minute profile quiz. And I felt like those two parameters meant you might be meeting a few other people who are also taking it seriously.
That's how my dad and step-mom met, and they've been together for years as well! I do think any positive change in the world of dating (online or not) is going to take higher barriers to entry. Not necessarily cost, but requiring participants to put time and work in to be a part of it & signal that they're committed.
This is fascinating. I've always been glad that I met my husband >20 years ago before dating apps were a thing - because they sound incredibly dispiriting to use. That said, as someone who watched the first few seasons, I always thought that Love is Blind was pretty strikingly unsuccessful - so many of the couples break up. But I hadn't thought about comparing the success rate to the app rate - a low bar, I guess, but a valid one. I love the audio only pod concept.
All great points, Darby! On the success rate, I would chalk a good number of the failures on the show to the incentives of reality tv to create drama & the ticking clock of having to get engaged and married in such a short period of time. If we were to remove those elements, I would think that relationships started in the pods would wind up with a significantly higher success rate than the show, let alone dating apps.