SPEAKER_05

It's called Third Wheel.

Yes.

Okay, great.

And I like to tell people that I cover the different ways people are falling in and out of love.

The mischievous and exciting, confusing ways they're navigating romance.

You know, we're in a loneliness epidemic.

COVID changed a lot about how we live, including how we date.

So the idea behind the column and focusing on dating and relationships really emerged out of recognizing that technology is evolving and so are we.

Is that... Yeah, dating app fatigue is at an all-time high, I'd argue, right now.

Why is that?

In my reporting, what I've observed is that the price points have gone up, a lot of people have become more suspicious of the algorithms, and a lot of people have...

become reluctant to swiping because of the options on there.

They are saying that they are swiping on men who are creeps or women who are crazy, like using words like that.

And I think there then comes a safety issue.

There have been so many reports of people meeting up with a dating app date who turns out to be less than ideal or who harms them.

And so

A lot of people don't like feeling like they're being jerked around by the dating apps, kept on there to spend their money versus actually finding love.

No, and I mean, and I think, you know, when I'm talking to representatives of the apps, they will obviously push back on that and they'll say, no, that's not our end goal, but that's not what it feels like.

The way that they're responding to it, I mean, people are falling into two camps.

You have those who are taking the more analog approach.