Data is Beautiful

The most distinct 8 colours are of course: Red, Blue, Blue, Black, Grey, Grey, Grey, Grey.

That chart must be made by a dog.

There is also the enshittification that intentionally make the sites worse and harder to use... I will never in a million years understand why useful features are removed completely other than "the longer you are stuck on the site the more likely you are to pay for premium."

POF used to have a section for you to add tags and a function to search by tags. Completely gone. Not even a premium feature. OKC used to have an additional text entry to elaborate on the questions you answer, now completely gone. "do you believe animals have spirits like people" yes or no.... No, but that makes me sound like an asshole. I don't believe either do, but I can't explain that now... OKC used to let you browse profiles instead of just swipe swipe swipe. Match group bought every successful dating site and absolutely destroyed them to make them all seemingly identical "Tinder 2.0" clones.

I'm not 100% sure on this one, but there aren't even direct messages on OKC at first, just an "intro" and I've seen on women's profiles they say "I read all my intros." There's a tab for intros, so I'm assuming their intros show up there. I'm a guy, I NEVER have had an intro in that tab, but if I happen to stumble on a profile where she sent me an intro it shows up on her profile. Not trying to be sexist, I think they are playing the bullshit game of "men are more desperate and willing to pay so we'll do what we can to make them stuck here longer."

POF is even more of a joke now, they are moving more towards streaming and paid rewards... Fucking streamer profiles "not here to date, just here for the streaming." It's so absurd what happened to online dating.

A lot of people are ok with tinder or hinge, but I need more information about a person I'm not one of those "unga bunga she pretty, lemme smash" types. I need a profile to read...

We just always go full circle in the world with almost everything.

"online" doesn't necessarily mean dedicated dating/match making apps.

The Internet connects people in a way that nothing ever has before. You use the Internet to seek out interests of yours, as will other people. So like minded people tend to meet even incidentally.

I met my partner online, but it was on a game, not a dating service. Neither of us were really looking for love. We became friends, then started dating, and now married for years.

Most of the "people" on there aren't people. They're either bots or occasionally those looky-loos that are just hired actors to keep people engaged to the site and try and get as much money out of them as possible. Especially the paid dating sites are mostly just that. They're just sucking money out of people that are genuinely emotionally invested and sometimes even desperate. It's real sad, and disgusting from those sites.

I think online dating will still remain. But it's less of actual interest for long term stuff, and more want to have a fun one night stand kind of deal. I feel like most other things on that chart turned into that as well though.

I think the online thing is about to start dropping.

The graph stops at 2020...the height of the pandemic where everyone was stuck in physical, but not virtual isolation.

I agree with you except my guess is that has already dropped if post-pandemic data was introduced.

Is there anything we can't privatize for profit?

but the study they are citing doesn't seem to confirm anywhere close to the 60% figure, it seems to be saying 11.5% instead

I think you've linked the variable of all couples regardless of when they got together. If 11.5% of all couples met online, whether they met in 2023 or 1975, then that doesn't actually disprove the line graph (which could be what percentage of couples who met in that particular year met through each method).

The researchers who maintain the data set you've linked published an analysis of the 2017 data showing that it was approaching 40% towards the most recent relationships being formed, in 2017. I could believe that post-covid, the trends have approached 60%.

Thankyou for digging past the headlines and showing your findings. No one has the time to do it all the time but together we can.

Nerds.

Bulletin board systems (BBS) go back to 1980. Men have tried everything to get laid since the dawn of humanity. It checks out.

Meeting online before Internet:

Scientists probably.

You didn't meet your spouse on World of Warcraft?

They may not be perfect but it’s better than sitting around swiping for the perfect person that may not exist.

I actually appreciate having information on personality, background, hobbies and dating intentions up-front, rather than play a guessing game for hours or days.

The number of people that met on BBS would probably not even register as a line on that graph, lol. You are a rare gem, good sir or madam.

Explain your thesis.

/c/dataisdepressing

I don't understand it so it must be bad.

Except the graph ends with 2020, so I'm not sure it even includes whatever mystery events might have biased things towards online that year.

I'd guess it's due to more women in the workforce.