Single people warned of new online dating trend 'avalanching' ahead of Valentine's Day
If you thought you were up to date on all the lingo of modern dating, you might want to get the notebook out - 'avalanching' is the latest trend to get your head around.
Online dating has become a staple part of everyday life, and the trends that take over apps like Tinder and Hinge can have immediate real-world impacts.
With Valentine's Day now less than a month away, it's a busy time of year for these apps - and a newly-noticed trend suggests that it might actually be a very complicated period if you're looking for someone new.
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Some new research from a smaller dating app called Finding The One has indicated that people are way looser with their matching criteria during January, all in the hopes of making sure they have a date on Valentine's Day.
This means that people might swipe right much more willingly and (to be totally brutal) lower their expectations a little bit, assuming that more volume means a better chance to book something in on that seemingly all-important date.
Apparently, 79% of the 800 people Finding The One surveyed admitted that they swipe right more at this time of year for that exact reason, and almost half of them said they lower their standards on things like location and age, which can sometimes be non-negotiables.
This has been coined 'avalanching', as people effectively try to get an avalanche of interest by casting the net way more widely than usual. If that's you, it can make for an overwhelming amount of admin - particularly if you're used to a more chill dating app experience.
That said, it's not all bad. After all, if you think that your rate of success isn't normally great, this could be an opportunity to throw your hat in the ring and potentially land in front of someone who might have wrongly dismissed you.
Needless to say, we've all got more in common than we first assume, so this could make for less predictable matches that actually see sparks flying - we can hope, right?
Out of all the negative dating trends out there - from ghosting to breadcrumbing - this one isn't entirely terrible, particularly if you look at the silver lining.
But a word of warning: if avalanching does work and you find yourself happily paired up, just make sure you steer clear of phubbing in your relationship.