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I still disagree. Most older people couldn't even tell you what "no cap" means much less tell you what the average college-aged person is doing in their private lives. Besides, most people are not going to tell their parents or their managers at work about all the 'shrooms they did at Rolling Loud or the older dude who's been sponsoring all their trips to the Caribbean.
An assumption that often gets made on this subforum is that most people, especially young people, are dating with an eye towards long-term commitment. I'm sure that's probably the case in Abilene, TX or any Colorado military towns, which are going to have more "conservative" and traditional young people by nature.
In larger cities (NY, LA, DC, Chi, SF, Miami, ATL, etc.), many young people are purely dating for fun, and this can extend well into their 30s. So yeah, a 23 year-old could easily meet a 35 year-old man on Hinge or Raya, date for a year or so, and then move on to the next one. Plus, why deal with a 24 year-old cute broke dude with roommates when you can deal with a good-looking older man who has his own condo in Midtown and can afford floor seats at MSG, 5-star restaurants multiple nights per week, etc? There's far more pressure on younger men in the dating game today than ever before because there are more older men in the market than ever before. But if your dating experience was 30 years ago in a mid size Midwestern metro, you're not going to see this reality.
You remind me of a story my Father would tell. We lived in Kentucky in 1964 and Father said all his friends told him they were voting for Goldwater. He figured a lot of them had to be lying to him because Goldwater didn't get that many votes in the entire state!
The point of that is that we tend to surround ourselves with people who are like us. That colors our view of the world. That is our paradigm. That does not mean our paradigm is what the world is like for most people, only our circle.
A lot of the posts are from people looking for long term relationships. So people are answering from that viewpoint. Everyone understands that some girls and guys just want to have fun. Doesn't matter if they are in Manhattan, NY or Manhattan, KS.
Another factor, I think, is that people seem to age more slowly today or at least don't look the way older people did 20 years ago. If you were in your early 20s back in the 70s, 80s or 90s, the typical 35 year-old almost anywhere probably looked different from the typical 35 year-old today. So there probably isn't as much as an "ick" factor with larger age gaps today since people stay single longer and generally take better care of themselves. This is at least what I see in coastal cities. I can't speak for Toledo, Ohio or Waco, TX.
I think perhaps the reason is there is more volatility. Men working in the same factory , and people eating the same local food and there less volatility . Now people can eat garbage which makes them overweight , have bad skin etc., while an older person can do the opposite. Same thing with fashion. Either sex now has more choice to make themselves look better or worse. We also have a lot less physical stress. In some cases like teeth and hair, that does have much more convincing interventions that they once did.
Another factor, I think, is that people seem to age more slowly today or at least don't look the way older people did 20 years ago. If you were in your early 20s back in the 70s, 80s or 90s, the typical 35 year-old almost anywhere probably looked different from the typical 35 year-old today. So there probably isn't as much as an "ick" factor with larger age gaps today since people stay single longer and generally take better care of themselves. This is at least what I see in coastal cities. I can't speak for Toledo, Ohio or Waco, TX.
I guess you don't look at data. People are a lot more overweight these days on average than they used to be. People on average are less fit than they were in the 80s when it was "hip to be square." A lot of gyms closed and went out of business. There were almost no overweight kids in school or college when I was there. The average American man went from 165 lbs. in 1960 to 195 in 2010 and the average woman from 140 to 165. And yes that's true in the coastal cities as well.
A lot of the posts are from people looking for long term relationships. So people are answering from that viewpoint. Everyone understands that some girls and guys just want to have fun. Doesn't matter if they are in Manhattan, NY or Manhattan, KS.
The vast majority of the posts here are from people who are over the age of 50. And many of those people live in exurbs or the suburbs of mid sized metros. There's nothing wrong with that and I'm not trying to pass judgment. I just don't think the average 50+ C-D poster has much insight into the dating world of people under the age of 30. They're in a different stage of life and can't relate to people who have lived their entire adolescence/adulthood phase in the social media era.
Most dating apps have not made that information publicly available since they consider it proprietary.
I think you are just not aware. I may not be a professional in the field but I do have an educational back ground in it as an undergrad, regarding statics, research methods and demographics. The skew between men and women swiping would blow the doors off most correlational coefficients on any other phenomena. When the ratio is that huge its generally considered causal.
I guess you don't look at data. People are a lot more overweight these days on average than they used to be. People on average are less fit than they were in the 80s when it was "hip to be square." A lot of gyms closed and went out of business. There were almost no overweight kids in school or college when I was there. The average American man went from 165 lbs. in 1960 to 195 in 2010 and the average woman from 140 to 165. And yes that's true in the coastal cities as well.
That's funny. There aren't too many people on this site who look at more data than me.
First, we need to be much more nuanced and granular here. So we need to retrieve historical NHANES anthropometric data from the CDC. While it is true that Americans overall have become heavier, that's not true for every demographic (age, ethnicity, education). For younger (under 40) college-educated non-Hispanic White Americans, weights are virtually unchanged over the last 30 years, with the most pronounced weight gain being in people who have less than a 4-year Bachelor's degree. Just try walking around a Whole Foods in San Francisco and then try walking around a Walmart Supercenter in Montgomery, AL and see if you notice a difference.
Second, you have to look at all anthropometric data, not simply weight. So if men are getting heavier, one question is whether abdominal obesity is also increasing. We also need to examine sagittal plane diameter (i.e., how far your stomach extends when lying flat on your back). African American men, for example, are heavier today than they were in 1994, but the median waist circumference of a Black man under the age of 40 is almost identical to what it was in 1994.
The vast majority of the posts here are from people who are over the age of 50. And many of those people live in exurbs or the suburbs of mid sized metros. There's nothing wrong with that and I'm not trying to pass judgment. I just don't think the average 50+ C-D poster has much insight into the dating world of people under the age of 30. They're in a different stage of life and can't relate to people who have lived their entire adolescence/adulthood phase in the social media era.
That's the typical arrogance of youth speaking. Kids in the 60s said older people couldn't relate and didn't know anything. Listen to the rock music of that era!
Now its obviously true younger people will have a better idea on average.
Learning to relate to other different people is a skill. Its something social media makes more difficult because even at a young age, you can surround yourself with people who are just like you and who "voted for Goldwater" (Or Obama/Romney/Hillary/Bernie/Trump/Biden, etc.). And with experience comes wisdom. One thing you learn is that people are a lot alike (the whole point of the Beatles song, "Back in the USSR") and that technology doesn't change them in the most important ways.
The vast majority of the posts here are from people who are over the age of 50. And many of those people live in exurbs or the suburbs of mid sized metros. There's nothing wrong with that and I'm not trying to pass judgment. I just don't think the average 50+ C-D poster has much insight into the dating world of people under the age of 30. They're in a different stage of life and can't relate to people who have lived their entire adolescence/adulthood phase in the social media era.
Its ironic that you think you know what the 50+ demographic thinks and where they are wrong about other demographics. How then do you know what that demographic knows and what they do not know about the other, meaning you must know about both demographics. Those people also have children and communicate with them. . Even in my case , I was much more like they date now today than peers 20 years ago. That is because I was avant garde with technology( my career) and quite inspired since I dated/mingled with Au Pairs in my 20s. I found the local girls kind of boring. I did not meet my wife at a local sock hop. So again, that is why one cannot use an individual anecdotes to study a demographic.
All this is besides the point. Like I said, one does not engage in demographic research with their own personal experience.
I think you are just not aware. I may not be a professional in the field but I do have an educational back ground in it as an undergrad, regarding statics, research methods and demographics. The skew between men and women swiping would blow the doors off most correlational coefficients on any other phenomena. When the ratio is that huge its generally considered causal.
This isn't data saying anything about the age of the men young women are matching with, which I thought was the topic of this sidebar. You would also need data on the age requirements, if any, set by the average user by age, the success rate of matching by age (since certain apps will likely skew to certain demographics), and then determine whether the rate of matching exceeds that of what we would expect given the size of the population.
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Kids in the 60s said older people couldn't relate and didn't know anything. Listen to the rock music of that era!