After going through a breakup last year, Connie Li, a software engineer, rejoined the dating apps, ready to dip her toe in the water again. But many of the men who reached out to her seemed to just want something casual, so she tried something new. In a file longer than this article created in the note-taking app Notion, Li, 33, described herself as monogamous, short and prone to wearing colorful outfits. Li, who recently moved to San Francisco from New York, is part of a small but growing group of people who are using online shareable documents — typically Google Docs — to find love.
Since she wrote her profile last fall, Li said she had gone on about 15 first dates with men who reached out after reading it. The top dating apps saw a slump in user growth last year, according to a Morgan Stanley report. Some look like polished websites, with clean design, photographs and embedded music tracks. About half of people who have used dating apps have had positive experiences, according to the Pew survey, which involved 6, people in the United States.
But dissatisfaction may be growing. Women were more likely to have negative experiences than men. About two-thirds of women under 50 on dating apps said they had received physical threats, experienced unwanted continued contact from a match, been called an offensive name or been sent unsolicited sexual messages or images. Such experiences have led some people to seek alternative ways of finding love. Unlike profiles that are limited in word count and often focused on what the advertisers are seeking, some people risk sharing too much, too soon.
You can only glean so much from an online description, he acknowledged. Still, he said it felt more efficient than other ways of finding a partner. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Enter your information below to receive our weekly newsletters with the latest insights, opinion pieces and current events straight to your inbox.
Writers of so-called Date-Me Docs, which can read like 1,word versions of the personal ads of yore, hope for a more meaningful connection than a swipe might allow. Jenny Gross and Livia Albeck-Ripka. Society Technology Media.
