When you’ve been using dating apps for a long time, they start to feel old. The profiles and people you encounter start to look the same, the dates you go on begin to merge together in your memory, and the whole process begins to feel tired. You know that your dating life needs a revamp - but how should you go about it?
In 2020, we put less time into assessing potential dates than we used to. The early days of internet dating involved filling out a detailed profile and going looking for people who shared at least a few of your interests, but dating apps offer us little more than a picture and a hint of a potential partner’s personality. Mobile dating has become a lot like playing mobile slots, as we swipe through possible matches with all the speed and lack of attention as someone spinning the reels of an online slots game in search of a matching set of symbols. Our end goal is the same as the end goal of that metaphorical online slots player - we want a jackpot. They want money, but we want a viable partner who we might see more than once!
If you're tired of bad dates and you're jadedhttps://www.amigoslots.com/ with the whole process, it's probably been a while since you changed your profile. Your old profile, though, could be part of the reason for your lack of success. As it's still (just about) a new year, here are some dating profile tips to bring new life to your search for a partner to share the year with!
Ditch The Filters
We get it. We live in the age of Instagram and easy-to-use photo-editing apps. It started with everyone wanting to look their best all the time, but now we’re at the point where people want to look better than they do in real life. Wrinkles get smoothed out, lips are made fuller, bags around eyes are removed, and excess weight goes along with them. The person staring back at you on your edited picture might be beautiful, but if they no longer look like you, what’s the point? Plenty of Fish recently decided to ban people from using filters on profile pictures, and frankly, we wish everyone else would follow suit. This also goes for filters that make you look like a cat, a dog, a rabbit, or just about anything else. An obviously re-touched photo makes you look vain. A photo with an animal filter on it makes you look childish. Neither of those are messages you want to give out through your dating profile, and they might be stopping you from matching with a better quality of date.
Stop Talking, Start Dating
Be honest with yourself. How many more conversations are you having on your preferred dating app right now compared with the number of dates you're going on? We're guessing lots. Don't worry; we're not judging you - everybody is doing it. Just because everyone's doing it doesn't make it a great idea, though. The more conversations you're having, the less effort you'll put into each individual conversation. Without that effort, it's unlikely you'll ever get around to actually booking a date. Who knows how many potentially great dates you're missing out on? One of the most important changes you should make to your dating profile this year is how you engage with it. Speak to fewer people at once. Focus on two or three matches at a time, and if you think there's something there, see them in real life. It's much more rewarding than staring at your phone forever.
State Exactly What You’re Looking For
Your short bio might be the wittiest thing you've ever said or a deep philosophical statement, but it doesn't help your potential dates assess what you want from them. That has two potential consequences. Firstly it's going to mean some people pass on the chance to match with you because they're looking for someone who's clear on what they're looking for, and secondly it means you might match with people who wouldn't have been matches if you'd been more honest about who you were hoping to meet. If you just want to hook up, say so. If you only want to meet people who are interested in long term relationships, say so. Someone has to get to the point eventually if a relationship or a date is going to happen, so it might as well be you!
Spellcheck Everything
Nobody is perfect at spelling all the time, and nor are they perfect at grammar. Even the most gifted communicator will sometimes make typing errors. That doesn't mean there's a good excuse for leaving them in your dating profile. People swiping through apps looking for a date are far more judgmental than they would be in real life. If you were having a conversation face to face, they would be focused on the words you say, but when the conversations happen through text, they're also looking at your spelling. On the back of that, they're judging your intelligence. Don't use 'text speak' (that's something we'd like to leave in the last decade), and don't take guesses on the correct spelling of a word if you're not sure. Use spellcheck to your advantage, and you'll come across as just as smart and sophisticated as you would in real life.
List Your Real Interests
Going to the movie theater is not a real hobby or interest. Virtually everybody enjoys that. 'Sports' doesn't count as an interest either because it's too broad and general, and it would be very strange if you didn't enjoy 'seeing friends,' so that doesn't count as an interest either. Don't be afraid of detailing what you're actually interested in without fear of being seen as weird, geeky, or unusual. People will judge you for those interests, but when it comes to online dating, you should want them to. It will filter out people who you would never have gotten along with, and it means you're more likely to catch the eye of someone who shares at least a few of those interests. On top of that, having real interests makes you sound a lot more interesting than someone who cares for nothing other than nights out with friends and the occasional film.
The best thing about all of these tips is that you can implement them straight away - although we’ll allow you a few minutes if you need to take a few new pictures to replace those awful filtered ones you’ve been using. Give your dating profile a spring clean before spring arrives, and start going on better dates!
Alex is a professional writer and digital marketing expert.