Now, as the older members of Gen Z are entering their young adulthood, the population appears to be increasingly worthy of attention, dragging the spotlight from the Millenials. Although they share a number of patterns with former gens, their characters have been shaped by an entirely different world, resulting in key differences in attitudes, mindset, and relationships. Leading a technologically-saturated lifestyle and rejecting older generations’ values, they are creating new rules for love in the digital age. No doubt, this will soon provoke new trends in social apps and platforms.
Happily Single
Zoomers are redefining the concept of being single. While their parents and older siblings may have felt miserable, isolated, and desperate to pair up, many Zoomers feel comfortable on their own. Internal harmony and healthy relationships are much more important for them than just not staying single.
We are used to equating time alone to loneliness. Remember all the melodrama characters strolling wistfully in the park, anticipating the power of love to overwhelm their routines? But, while romantic relationships have benefits, being single certainly does too.
The theory of “your better half” has given way to independence and completeness. Gen Zers are not trying to fill a hole in their souls with somebody, they feel complete with themselves. They believe learning to appreciate alone time is important for becoming self-sufficient and open to whatever life throws your way. Taking time for yourself should be seen as an opportunity to get to know who you really are and what you need.
Matching personalities and common attitudes
Gen Z is driven by the principles of inclusion and diversity, which is reflected in everything from the work environments they choose to the opinion leaders they follow. They center on society transformation and extend the limits of what was accepted to be the norm among previous generations. They are more likely to have grown up in diverse family structures, and as a result, they are less concerned about race, orientation or religion.
The determining factor in matching with somebody is no longer appearance: personality and common values do matter. According to Refinery, 74% of Gen-Z daters wouldn’t match with someone who holds different views on green issues and 71% say it’s a dealbreaker if a potential match has different political views than them. All of that presents plenty of insights, which dating apps are also striving to implement. For example, the core idea of Magnet app by SDVentures is to use animated avatars to represent personality types instead of having to rely solely on people’s profile pictures.
Post-pandemic dating fatigue
For sure, over time students of sociological faculties will write scientific research on how the pandemic affected our behavioral patterns. Covid-19 isolation has made adjustments in the way we communicate and even build relationships.
Some of the shifts are obvious — 53% of Gen-Z reported that the pandemic negatively affected their dating life. And here is what lies under the surface: people are taking longer to move a match offline, preferring the so-called Slow dating. No surprise, that the phenomena emerged from safety precautions and potential health risks of meeting offline.
What is more, after the long months spent in the company of their own during the lockdown, Zoomers have come to the idea that life’s much more than endless swipes. The extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic have inspired them to build genuine and long-term relationships, rather than spend time on casual affairs. As a result, it led to the invention of a new term — “Hardballing”, that deserves to be a protagonist of a separate paragraph.
Hardballing — unfiltered honesty?
Imagine Elisabeth and Mr. Darcy being direct and transparent with their emotions from the very first chapters. Missing the roundabouts of hesitations that enhance the likelihood of rejection. Then, we would be deprived of this outstanding representative of classic literature.
It’s uneasy to have the courage and confidence to express oneself in a direct way. By far, it’s the best method to eliminate time wasters and those who have another perception of relationships wavelength.
The times have changed and people have invented a trend for unfiltered honesty — Hardballing. The term was first coined by the behavioral scientist, Logan Ury, and means that “someone is being clear about their expectations of a relationship, whether they want a serious long-term partnership or a casual fling”. It means, before people start bearing their souls, they are upfront about what they want, reaching the level of commitment that is a fit for both.
Metaverse
One day we may start living two or more lives simultaneously, in different worlds. A metaverse is already a place where people meet for work matters, gather in communities, and even attend music concerts and fashion shows. Zoomers are digital natives, and 81% of them have already engaged in metaverse activities. Nothing there is extraordinary to zoomers: online gaming, creating an avatar with a VR headset, watching e-sports, or visiting branded spaces in games. What’s more interesting — they are eager to enter the metaverse for dating. Of course, several years of the pandemic also affected this.
And as more zoomers begin to explore the metaverse, our social life in this space will continue to evolve. We will likely see traditional social apps and dating platforms start to offer VR experiences or simply be moved back if new players create such platforms earlier.
We have already written about how dating is entering the metaverse here:
It’s hard to implement a “one size fits all” approach when talking about such an individual activity as dating. And though every Gen Z representative differs in their attitudes and behaviors, there are trends worth paying attention to. Zoomers spin the world, transforming the cores of communication and setting the pace for the online dating sector. Social discovery is definitely heading toward safe, friendly, and inclusive environments for conscious and independent users.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: iStockPhoto.com
