New Forbes Study Explores Dating App Burnout
A new study from Forbes Health explores dating app burnout, finding that 79% of Gen Z have experienced exhaustion from online dating. The research also looks at how long men and women spend on dating apps each day, and what people tend to lie about on their profiles.
In a recently released study of 1,000 Americans who have used a dating app within the last year, Forbes Health and OnePoll collaborated to research perspectives on online dating.
Dating app burnout – who and why?
Dating app burnout, defined as feeling emotionally, mentally or physically exhausted by dating apps, has been experienced by 78% of respondents either sometimes, often or always, the study found.
79% of Millennials and Gen Z reported that they have experienced dating app burnout sometimes, often or always. For Gen X and Baby Boomers, the rate is 77% and 69% respectively.
80% of women reported feeling some level of burnout, whereas for men it was slightly lower at 74%, research found.
But what is the source of this burnout? 40% of respondents agreed that the inability to find a good connection on the apps was the biggest factor in their exhaustion. The next most common reasons was feeling disappointed or rejected by someone they met on a dating app.
You can see the full list of burnout inducing factors below:
Beyond these issues, experts Dr Rufus Spann & Dr Judy Ho told Forbes Health that catfishing and ghosting were other common dating behaviors that they’ve seen affect an individual’s wellbeing.
Dating app activity & objectives
The study also examined how long an individual will spend on a dating app each day, and what they’re looking for.
Research found that women tend to spend slightly longer on dating apps compared to men, and that millennials spend the most time amongst the surveyed age groups.
When it comes to their dating objectives, Gen Z reported the highest amount of interest in a long-term connection, at 52%. Less than half of millennials, Gen X, and baby boomers reported that long-term connections were their respective desired relationship goal.
Across the board, 20% of respondents admitted that they are looking for casual dates with a single partner, while 12% said that they want casual dates but with multiple partners. 9% of those surveyed said they are simply looking for friendship.
The lies we tell
While dating apps encourage maximum honesty from each user, individuals do still tend to lie about certain characteristics of themselves. The study looked to understand which traits daters most frequently falsify.
The most common characteristic lied about is age. 21% of all respondents admitted that they had lied about their age on a dating app, comprising of 23% of men and 19% of women.
Activities and interests were the next most common area for dating app users to lie about, followed by employment, dating history, and relationship status.
In online circles, it’s often claimed that men tend to lie about their height in order to reach the 6 foot benchmark. The Forbes Health study found that just 12% of people have lied about their height, with 15% of men and 11% of women admitting to this.
