In February 2022, 29-year-old Priya was working on the shop floor at Hollister on Regent Street. Nursing a terrible hangover, she had considered calling in sick, but made it to the last 20 minutes of her shift when a guy walked into the shop and asked her where the graphic T-shirts were. After noticing her accent, he asked if she was from India, and the pair got talking after he revealed that he went to a Hindu school. "He asked for my Instagram, and it was instant after that," Priya says. "Sam* and I spent all our time together. It was definitely love at first sight."
It is the kind of meet-cute that many of us have spent our lives fantasising about. Saccharine rom-coms where the couple lock eyes reaching for the same book in the library, or get tangled in each other's dog leads at the park, have long populated our collective imaginary. Recently, social media accounts like @meetcutesnyc have racked up millions of followers. Three in four single people in the UK would prefer to meet a future partner in real life, according to research from dating app Inner Circle.
Priya and Sam are now engaged to be married. But stories like theirs are becoming increasingly rare. Research published by Stanford University last year showed that a whopping 55 per cent of heterosexual couples - and an even higher proportion of gay couples-met online in 2022. But has the normalisation of apps closed us off to love at first sight, now that we have a designated space online for romance? What does shutting off that possibility do to our brains, and what does this mean for the culture when we've grown up believing love at first sight to be the ultimate form of attraction?
Split-second attraction
This story is from the October 31, 2024 edition of The London Standard.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the October 31, 2024 edition of The London Standard.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Vamos Rafa! It's time to go for Spain's brave warrior
'Shy and funny' Nadal bows out as sport's ultimate competitor
Does Angeball have a winning future at Spurs?
Head coach divides supporters with his ultra-attacking tactics
The £5bn-a-year tax timebomb that's set to devastate London hospitality
The capital will bear the brunt of Rachel Reeves’s National Insurance raid
Live like a Queen...
...in the house gifted to Anne of Cleves by Henry VIII in 1540 and now onsale for 3.75 million
At home with...Matthew Williamson
The designer’s Belsize Park flatis a grand canvas for his ever-changing colour palette
Hidden London
The first time I made my way to Maison Assouline was with a broken foot, in a tragic boot and crutches.
Jameela Jamil on why New York will always have her heart...
..and her stomach. The actor and activist shares her favourite brunch spot, a secret bar and her brownstone fantasies
My life in bespoke suits
Back in the Eighties, suits were so wide that even the shoulder pads had shoulder pads. Suits back then were boxy, square, and designed to make you look like a quarterback, a bouncer or a tank.
Cher's wild world
The singer's memoir is full of jaw-dropping tales
'I was told I could stay in the UKthen kicked out of my asylum accommodation'
As our appeal hits 1m, we turn the spotlight on an official policy that’s making newly recognised refugees homeless