Why winter break makes people use dating apps more
During that dead zone between Christmas Day and New Year’s, you might have found yourself overanalyzing every aspect of your life. Maybe it’s because of hangover anxiety. Maybe it’s because you don’t have work or school to distract you from your innermost thoughts.
But one thing’s for sure: a lot of people try to distract themselves with dating during late December and early January.
The numbers prove that if you’re single and you spent the past week or so away from your normal routine and with your family, you might be feeling an urge to couple up — or at least find a new friend with benefits — more than usual. Online dating activity is at its highest in December and January, according to dating app Coffee Meets Bagel.
“Post-Christmas to mid-January is the biggest time of year for online dating,” CMB Co-Founder and COO Dawoon Kang says. “On December 26th last year, we saw a 71% jump in sign-ups, and another 44% jump on January 1st. The first week of January also saw the highest activity level of the year.”
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But why does hanging out with our families make us long for love at first swipe? Based on how much people complain about their parents over the holidays, you’d think we’d all be vowing never to fall in love or procreate. Instead, the holidays apparently turn us all into big softies, swiping our lives away until work or school starts up again.
Coffee Meets Bagel conducted a survey of 800 of its members to further understand this phenomenon. In all, 61% of respondents said they think more about dating during the holiday season and the end of the year, and CMB asked them why. Here’s the breakdown of answers the holiday swipers gave.
46% said they reflect more on life in general during this period.
Did you ever notice how within a day or two of being in your parents’ house, you can’t stop ruminating on everything from your life goals to some dumb thing you said to your bestie that may have hurt her feelings three years ago? Without the normal adult distractions like your typical workday and social life, your brain can go into overdrive.
So if you’re bothered by the fact that you don’t have a boo, being home for the holidays might intensify those feelings, setting you up for a few weeks of dedicated swiping until you either cuff someone or give up again.
43% said spending more time with friends and family makes them think more about dating.
This is a no-brainer, especially if a lot of the people in your life are coupled-up. If you don’t have anyone and all your friends or family members do, you can start to feel like a third or fifth wheel fast.
Even if your friends and fam are mostly single, though, chances are the topic of dating will come up again and again, especially when your well-meaning family members ask you how your love life’s going. It’s all totally normal, even though it can be annoying. And if you tried to soothe the resultant anxiety by logging onto a dating app, you’re not alone.
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42% said they want someone to go to holiday or New Year’s Eve parties with.
Apparently, the abundance of holiday parties and social activities makes single people long for a party buddy. And hey, there’s no shame in that — especially if you can convince them to be your DD.
The idea of dating someone just so that you have a party +1 might sound messed up. But think about it: having a default normal person to talk to at an awkward party is definitely one of the biggest perks of being in a relationship.
45% said finding a new relationship is one of their New Year’s resolutions for 2018.
If you’re the “new year, new me” type and you’re also single, it makes total sense that you’d ratchet up the dating app activity from the moment the clock strikes midnight on January 1st.
So the point is if you are dying for a love connection this time of year, you’re not alone. But be safe out there and make sure you don’t over-commit to a cuffing season boo if you think you’ll miss the single life by Memorial Day weekend.
