IF YOU COULD pay someone to spare you from the drudgery of dating apps, would you? This white knight would screen potential suitors on your behalf, only putting forward options they’d personally vouch for.
For those who think that sounds nice, you’re in luck: traditional matchmaking is having a revival. Only today’s version is more like romantic coaching, or having a dating concierge, than being pressured to marry a member of the gentry by a Victorian society woman.
This comes as more folks become fed up with the endless scrolling and swiping on dating apps. Even Hinge, one of the apps, says 61 per cent of users find modern dating tiring and overwhelming—a phenomenon known as "dating burnout".
It’s easy to see the appeal of simply outsourcing all this trouble. Plus, because matchmakers vet everyone in their network, your dates are accountable for their behaviour: if they ghost you, they’ve got someone to answer to. Could matchmaking, with its centuries-old roots, remedy the ills of modern dating?
This story is from the September 2023 edition of Reader's Digest UK.
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This story is from the September 2023 edition of Reader's Digest UK.
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