Quarantinder: How Gen Z Is Dating In Quarantine

There's a large, important, cultural shift happening - one we've seen for a while in Gen Z, but it's now expanding because of COVID-19. The pandemic has accelerated a generational shift in the way we date and meet new people, and we've learned that connection is enduring, and despite social distancing, Gen-Z will find a way to sustain it.

Here's everything that happened on Tinder in the last few months.

COVID got us to open up.

The combination of being stuck at home and the fact that we were all going through the same thing at the same time led folks on Tinder to get chattier than ever. Globally, April 5th was the peak of this chattiness: on that day Tinder members sent an average of 52% more messages vs. the start of lockdowns in early March.  

In India, May 3rd was the peak of this chattiness: on that day Tinder members sent an average of 60% more messages vs. the start of lockdowns in early March - above the global average.

"2020 made me realise"

To help users better introduce themselves to potential matches, Tinder recently released Prompts, a new in-app feature that lets members respond to questions or finish a sentence to display on their profile. Of all available Prompts, '2020 MADE ME REALISE' had the highest adoption, signaling how much our daily lives have changed from every perspective--including how we gauge compatibility with potential matches on Tinder.

Quarantine led to creative hacks for hanging out. Social distancing turned us into creative digital daters. Forced to stay home, browsing Tinder became a way to socialize. At its peak, swipe volume* among members in India was up 32%. And with most places closed, many on Tinder looked to Animal Crossing to rendezvous. Early quarantine saw a 5x increase in Animal Crossing mentions in bios.

Masks became the talk of Tinder. The early days of quarantine saw an uptick in mentions of toilet paper and hand sanitizer stockpiles within member bios, but come April there was only one accessory on everyone's minds: face masks. Members touted their own mask-wearing habits (show me your mask and I'll show you mine"') or looked for shared mask POV, ('if you don't wear a mask while grocery shopping, we're not compatible').

While dating and socializing out of quarantine looks different around the world right now, hanging out on Tinder is showing no signs of letting up.

Methodology

Data was pulled from March through May 2020

The information included in this campaign represents overall Tinder trends, not the personal information of any specific, identified individual or member. App activity, messaging, and biodata are representative of global Tinder activity between March and May 2020. When analysis references 'at the peak of quarantine', this refers to the highest point of a metric measured during the March-May 2020 period.

*Swipe volume/swipe activity defined as when a member swipes left or right on a profile.