Love and dating can make us behave in strange ways. It can drive you mad! A new survey by QuackQuack, one of the leading dating and matchmaking apps in India has shown some of the latest behaviours that Gen Z singles participate in during their search for partners. More than 15,000 men and women, either self-employed, working professionals or students took part in the survey, which is celebrating the company milestone of reaching 25 million users. So what trends and behaviours did it uncover?
‘Fake-ups’ is a trend that is exactly what it sounds like. It is where people make-up a fake relationship and subsequent break-up to talk about with their next match up. The idea is that it helps elicit sympathy. Some 18 per cent of men in the survey admitted to using this technique, while it was not particularly common for female users. Always good to get off on the right foot and start a relationship on the basis of a lie eh lads?
Perhaps less devious and something we all do to an extent is the second trend, ‘chameleoning’. Everyone presents themselves differently in different companies, even if ever so slightly. Some 23 per cent of women and 31 per cent of men in the survey admitted that they were guilty of changing their profiles and adopting fake interest to go with the flow and better match their matches. Finding common ground is important in the dating world, but it’s not usually helpful in the long-run to feign interest in things you don’t really care for. Sooner or later you will be exposed, unless you’re comfortable being condemned to a life pretending you enjoy something you don’t.
‘Evil dead rise’ is the name for another trend exposed by the survey. This creatively named phenomena is when ex-flames attempt to reconnect, coming back with promises of how they have changed and how things will be different this time. Among daters between the age of 18 and 22, 37 per cent had experienced this. Of course, some 7 per cent admitted to being the ‘Evil dead riser’ – and many will feel their claims are genuine. But it can be a distressing experience when trying to move on.
The last dating trend exposed in the survey was Delusionship. This is where people concoct and imagine entire relationships, from start to finish with people they have yet to speak a word to. More common in introverts, but pretty widespread – some 39 per cent of the users admitted to this less harmful trend. As long as you can recognise truth from fiction, it seems quite a normal experience we all do from time to time.
