Dating has undergone major overhauls in the past decades, first with the introduction of online dating and again with the rise of dating apps. Apps such as Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, OKCupid, and more all have the same goal: to facilitate successful romantic connections. Success is a difficult metric to define in such a nebulous scenario, and some artificial metric must be imposed. For example, OKCupid has performed data analyses with success defined as a certain number of messages being exchanged back and forth between users. A common method of "matching" with a potential date on these apps. In this scenario users swipe left to reject another user and right to accept. From here, people are able to message and interact. For heterosexual couples, apps like Bumble require the woman to first accept a message request from any male suitor. On Hinge, you don't swipe right, but rather send a "like" on some aspect of a potential date's profile. Plenty of research has been done on studying online interactions between users to try and optimize successful romantic connections. However, in the post-coronavirus world, different forms of communicating have taken hold. It is now common for folks to have virtual happy hours, virtual watch parties, and even video dates. How can dating be revolutionized for a post-coronavirus society? I suggest we look back to the old school and ask what lessons we can learn from the speed dating event. When is a speed dating even successful, and what kind of personalities perform best at these events? How can these lessons be applied to swipe-based dating? Would a new service, such as virtual speed-dating, be a potential method for deeper emotional connections between users and successful matches?
