While the number of hours will differ slightly for everyone, we can pretty safely assume we spend way too much time on dating apps. After all, we’re basically addicted to our phones, and now that we can search for a soulmate via them, there’s no stopping us. According to a study done by Baboo.com, millennials are wasting 10 hours a week swiping left and right. Here’s what you need to know.
- The study surveyed 5,000 millennials between the ages of 18 and 30. Of course people over 30 are swiping and trying to find a partner, but it makes sense to cap this study at 30 since that’s the prime millennial age range. There’s also the fact that most people probably hope to meet someone by 30 since that’s a big milestone for a lot of us, so we’d be using dating apps a lot in the years leading up to that decade. Baboo.com also looked at their 370 million global users to see how much time they’re spending on dating apps each week overall.
- Men and women have marginal differences in their online dating activity. If you thought that you spent almost no time using dating apps during the week but your guy friends log in way too much, think again. The study found that while women spend approximately 79 minutes a day using dating apps, men spend 85 minutes. Yeah, the male number is bigger, but not by much. Six minutes more is literally nothing.
- We’re logging on a lot in a single day too. Do you use Tinder or OkCupid several times a day, even if you’re just looking through the profiles and your matches for a few minutes at a time? The study seems to confirm that online dating behavior as well. Men log on nine times in a single day on average and women log on 10 times daily. This is probably because you keep telling yourself that if you just log on one more time, you’ll find someone new that will end up being the love of your life, right? It’s pretty easy to believe that since you hear so many dating app success stories (and there are even married couples who met this way).
- Sunday night is the best day of the week to find love. The most users are logged in on a Sunday evening at 7 p.m., so if you’re serious about finding a boyfriend, you might want to make that part of your Sunday night routine. If you already do this, then it’s definitely nice to know that this is such a popular time to use dating apps. At least other people are in the same boat: home alone at the end of the weekend and trying to find someone to go out with and maybe even fall in love with. One caveat: this data is from people living in the UK, but it seems to make sense for those in the States as well.
- January really is the best time to find love. Along with eating more kale and less pizza and going to the gym more often, finding love is often a New Year’s resolution that a lot of people make. Sure, you totally get that it’s impossible to plan something like this, but it’s still a really tempting goal to set. It turns out that the study confirmed that impulse as well: there was a 23% increase in active users in January 2018.
- If you feel like online dating eats up your schedule, you’re right. You’re not alone in thinking that you really are using dating apps way too often. As someone who works for Badoo.com told The Independent, this is a study that has been a long time coming: “One question we get asked a lot, is how much time do people really spend swiping for ‘The One’? So we decided to find out. These results give one of the first insights into how long Brits spend in pursuit of love, and it will come as no surprise that time is no barrier for most people.”
- You’re not alone. What can you take away from this study? Sure, you could wonder what you could do with your time if you weren’t using dating apps (like maybe you would be in a relationship and would be spending time with that person instead). But you can also take comfort in the fact that you’re not alone in your quest to find love via a dating app. You’re just doing what everyone else is doing—trying to find someone to spend your life with, and doing that in the most convenient and logical way. There should honestly be no shame in your online dating game.
