It’s Time to Date Like It’s 1988.

Ha, this is clearly in the spirit of a thread we read here recently where parents are coming to this brand new epiphany about allowing children to just play and roam freely and enjoy themselves without overprotecting helicoptering. Folks are getting burned out from dating apps and realizing they are being exploited by these companies for profit while making shallow unstable relationships .

Singles are dumping dating apps, turning to events
TAMPA - Singles might be sick of swiping, as dating is going old school.

A new study shows dating apps, like Hinge and Tinder, saw 15% fewer users since just last year, but in person dating event attendance has nearly doubled in the U.S. this year, according to Eventbrite.

"Pretty much everyone is saying ‘I’m done with dating apps, I haven’t had a good experience, I’m ready for something different," said Angelika Morris, with Soulmate Search Matchmaking. "I believe dating app culture gamifies love, our most important human relationship, in a way that makes it addicting, to always be seeking self, external validation, short intimacy flings, whatever it is."

Not only are users dumping dating apps, but Match Group, the owner of Tinder, Hinge, and The League is now being sued for a predatory business model, accused of allegedly turning users into swiping addicts.

"They are designed to keep you on the app, kind of like a casino or jackpot thing, your brain goes into a repetitive dopamine pleasure seeking cycle," said Morris.

They say, it’s time to date like it’s 1988.

So yea, brother sister, GET OUT THERE! Don't feel lonely isolated in front of a screen. There are so many people you can meet, and so many who want to meet you! Skip the digital filter of deception, and just go straight to human contact with strangers. Everyone in our lives was a stranger until we said "hello! My name is ... Wonderful to meet you!"

I was recently eating at an Ethiopian place with my wife for an anniversary dinner, it was a new experience actually because there are no utensils, bread is your utensil. It was only a handful of folks when we walked in and very quiet since the owner she did not have ambient music playing. I know how tense it gets in a quiet room with people who do not know each other because of the carryover of voices and the conversation, so I just started loudly talking to my wife about anything and everything. This seemed to help as the other people began conversating more relaxingly and the room began to drown out with a mix of conversation.

The big table in the middle eventually got filled with a group of four men and four women who had all arrived independently but knew each other through one other. It looked to me kind of like a group dating session just dressed up as a group event to meet new friends. Im rambling on to my lady about things I don't even remember, I think it was the monster truck show I was at with the kids a few weeks back. I would look back though from time to time and it seemed they just werent clicking.

I know, I am being weird, I observe everyone everywhere scanning permanently for potential threats on an instintctual level, it actually requires very little brain power and do it while doing anything else including conversation. One if the fellows said something along the lines of "this is why we cant take you places" , I am sure in jest but I think that fellow saw me smirk and look away when he said it. I am over here being a slob my hand covered in sauce because I have to pick up a beef stew in berber sauce with a piece of bread with like the consistency of a thin pancake or crepe so I start making loud jokes to my wife about "damn, and I used to complain about using chopsticks" but making sure not to disparage the food, because it was tasty. I heard the table chuckle softly and it seemed to break their tension. Five minutes everyone there at that group is now engaging each other more openly and comfortably.

I really enjoy beeing in social settings and groups and like to see others also haveing a good time, especially with new people. So this article just made me think of my recent experience seeing the peers of my generation actually socializing and having a good time in this format. People say the internet and instant communication has empowered people, but IMO it has also taken things away we used to take for granted such as meeting new people. So it is wonderful to see that people are trending back to what I consider more normal typical human behavior.

Peace be Upon Us All.

a reply to: worldstarcountry

It’s Time to Date Like It’s 1988.

Not for me...


From my experience; Back then in saloon society, one nite stands were common place....Today...glad I'm not in that mix.

Trust no one!!

Almost like cultivating a real relationship naturally was the way to go all along! Instead of judging based of filtered snap photos of duck lips.

I agree whole heartedly with everything you said here.

Dating apps but also social media in general has done a spectacular jobs of cheapening relationships. Having the tact to strike up conversation is a wonderful thing and one lots of young people seem to have lost. Heard to have a good back and forth when everyone is buried in there phones.

Very happy I made the call way back in grade 10 to abstain from social media that was near 20 years ago. Very happy with my decision. No facebook, no snap shat, no instagram. I’ve never used these services.

a reply to: worldstarcountry

a reply to: worldstarcountry

I’m hope dating apps do die off and people get back to meeting as they used too, Match group in particular bought out the small dating apps and imposed their business model of keeping single people single. It’s in their interest after all, like with big pharma, why provide a cure when the disease is so profitable?
Not only that these dating apps make people try to “sell” themselves, they end up portraying themselves as someone they aren’t, hoping to appeal to someone who that otherwise wouldn’t be interested. Not to mention the total fakes and bots that plague these sites.

Down with the dating apps long live beer goggles

I'm a well built, muscular powerhouse that can run fast, jump twice my height, and am well groomed. If you are interested, I will send you my picture...actually the picture of my old cat, but this is a dating site, nobody believes what anyone posts anyway. I think it will work, I will find a cat lady that likes to cuddle.

Yeah, it is way less hard to deceive someone if you meat them at real social functions and observe how they relate to other people and their friends. I do not understand why anyone would even want to use a dating service.

The seventies and early eighties were better around here than the late eighties. There were social functions all over the place, most were free, a dance cost fifty cents to enter and a soda was like thirty to forty cents. In the bars, it cost a buck to get in if they had a band, and the drinks were reasonable. Lots of people to dance with those days. It was way more social back those days....Most of that is gone now, unless you are got lots of money you can't afford to pay the cover charge or buy drinks. Not to mention an ounce of pot was only fifteen bucks.

a reply to: worldstarcountry

I dunno...'84 ish VCRs came out and porn videos worked their way into it all. After that... I mean going forward.. a lot of women had video players, and their own tapes.

AND THEN...the razors came out for girls and...for once women in the 80's progressed with just that little bit of education...and scared the hell outta us guys.

It changed dating in the sense that women were finally gettting equality...and prob had a vcr at home. When 1st mèeting (you know guys), we were looking at them and could swear "Wonder we what tricks she knows." The advancing modern woman of the '80s had to be dated a bit differently.

I parked on lovers lanes and drivein movies in the 60's, wild dates in the 70's....nowadays... I'd just let her drive, talk and seduce me.***

***Married 3 times 70's, again in '84, and last in '94..still. 30 years this May.

If I dated like it was 1988, it would be a coc aine fueled affair. We don't want to repeat that.

All I know is that it's a lot easier to get to know someone in person than online. Online can help under the right circumstances, but most young people don't seem to know what "Right circumstances" are.