Survey: 1 In 2 S’pore Singles Prefer Dating Apps; Men Look At Profile Pictures While Women Look At Bios

Dating is hard.

You have a crush on your classmate/colleague but you’re too shy to ask them out. So you prepare yourself for a month, gathering all the non-existent courage within you. Then, when you finally tell them how you feel, they say something like “Who are you?”, which deflates your heart like an old balloon at the end of a birthday.

Sad and lonely, you turn to online dating. Suddenly, hundreds of potential partners are available at a few swipes of your thumb. You’re overwhelmed, but thankful for the IT gods who created the Internet and later, Tinder. 

You’re not ashamed of using online dating apps because isn’t 2002 anymore, and online dating simply doesn’t carry the same stigma it used to. At that time, if you and your partner said you met online, people would look at you as if you said you met at a child-murdering cult.

But things are a little different now. Many people use online dating, including half of Singaporean singles.

Survey: 1 In 2 S’pore Singles Prefer Dating Apps

According to a recent survey by Lunch Actually, 1 in 2 singles in Singapore prefer to use dating apps to meet new people (51%).

The survey was conducted with 2,800 singles in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Thailand.

600 of the singles were from Singapore, aged from 21 to 55 years old.

Singles in Singapore were more inclined to use dating apps more than any other country in the survey.

Men vs Women

The survey also had some interesting findings with regard to the different things men and women on online dating platforms look for when swiping through dates.

According to Mothership, men considered profile pictures (53%) to be the most important factor, followed by dating bio (17%) and hobbies and interests (16%).

Conversely, women ranked dating bio as the top factor (35%), followed by the profile picture (28%) then hobbies and interests (20%).

I personally take offence at the accusation that men only care about how a women loo-

*gets distracted by attractive woman walking past*

looks. Seriously though, I’m actually surprised that this stereotype is true. When I was on Tinder, a woman’s bio mattered as much to me as their profile picture.

Who cares if you’re good looking if you’re boring?

Losing faith in dating apps

Due to the nature of online dating, people tend to choose partners based primarily on appearance.

However, when meeting someone in person, singles attribute positive personality (55%) and having similar values (43%) as the two most attractive traits in a potential partner.

And you can’t truly tell if an online persona has these traits because you’re too busy staring at their butt.

Violet Lim, the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Lunch Actually, said that profile pictures might lead to singles overlooking what really matters to them; similar values and the sustainability of a relationship.

“Merely swiping their mobiles in search of an attractive face often does not result in a good and compatible match. And often, singles have shared that swiping and chatting takes a lot of time and effort, with little or limited result”, Lim said.

The problem with this is that you spend too much time chatting with people who you’ll eventually find to be incompatible.

This will lead to dating fatigue, something many singles are facing now, Lim said.

According to the survey, 37% of women admitted that they are losing faith in the effectiveness of dating apps.

But, people here are still optimistic about their love life; 97% of Singaporeans still want to fall in love and get married in the future.

Bio me baby

If this survey has shown us anything, it’s that we place too much emphasis on profile pictures and appearances when we date online. Now, if you’re looking for something casual, then this makes complete sense.

But if you’re looking for something more, why not scroll down to their bio and see what kind of person they’re like? You might just find a fellow Rick and Morty fan amongst the hordes of pretty faces and empty bios.