This New Online Dating Trend Involves Broadening Your Horizons – Geographically, Not Intellectually

Valentine’s Day is here and if you’re not boo’d up it can be just another reminder of how single you are.

You tried your hardest to meet someone during cuffing season but it didn’t quite work out (boo-hoo). Not to worry, the quest for love continues as singles continue to jump online to find that special someone. 

Over a quarter of people prefer to meet partners online because they don’t know how to meet people in real life, according to a new study. 22% of those surveyed meeting people online works better to determine an early connection.

Zen Internet partnered up with dating expert Hayley Quinnto reveal online dating trends in 2023 – and it seems we’re all about ‘Wanderlove’ this year.

What is Wonderlove?

Wonderlove refers to daters expanding their search for love outside of their local neighbourhood – and meeting in the metaverse. The search for love has no bounds and now singles don’t want to be restricted by what’s on offer in their local area.

Changing your location on a dating app can be a bit tricky though – Tinder and Bumble automatically detect your location to show you local suitors. Both apps require you to pay a bit more to change your location. 

For Tinder:

Once subscribed to Tinder Plus, Tinder Gold, or Tinder Platinum, 

1. Open Tinder.

2. Tap your profile icon in the top left corner.

3. Tap “Settings.”

4. Scroll down to Discovery Settings and tap “Location.”

5. Tap “Add a new location” and enter your destination.

For Bumble you have to pay for Bumble Premium to change your location and match with people in other countries. 

Hinge, however, allows you to change your location with a pad subscription.

Bridget Kelly – also known as @fabledbridge used Tinder Passport (another paid feature that allows users to find singles in a preferred location by searching or by pinning it on the map) to find her current partner. 

After three days of using the app she found Patrick from Falkirk, a town in Scotland. Patrick flew across the pond after eight weeks and they met for the first time.

“So I joined Tinder and a couple of months later I got a message from somebody I thought was very bonnie, very pretty. I was talking to her and I swear she looked like she was from Edinburgh which really f****** confused me but she wasn’t – turned out she was from America – 4,700 miles away in Wisconsin in a place called New Glarus,” Patrick said.

The pair met, fell in love and the rest is history.

 “Zen’s research shows long-distance relationships are clearly not a deal breaker when it comes to finding the perfect match,” Quinn says.

“Over one in five singletons feel like they’ve run out of people to date in their hometown, and over a quarter think someone who lives in a different area to their hometown may have more similar values to them. The internet is vital for online dating and allows people to expand their horizons with almost two in five  single people willing to travel for the right person.”

So how can you use your online dating profile to find your future valentine? 

Quinn offers some insight: 

Avoid having a type:

Remember your “type” is just hypothetical until you actually find the right connection for you. Avoid letting rigid ideas around what your date does, where they live, or (dare I say it) even their height get in the way of you assessing potential partners on what’s really important on often superficial dating apps: great communication, shared values, and a willingness to build a relationship. 

It’s not about “where” someone is, it’s about “how” you can meet them:

One of the oldest dating questions is “so where do I find all the good ones?”. The irony is, there’s no one app, or postcode for where the best dates are; the answer instead comes from you really examining your own dating processes. Do you need to be more proactive, work on your dating app profile, or improve your communication skills when striking conversation with a match? There’s usually a lot you can work on to better your chances of finding ‘the one’ online.

Look further afield, but start with what you can improve:

If you’re not getting the matches you want online, chances are you need to adjust perimeters around distance and the age range you’re open to dating. However, it’s equally important to focus on your profile, getting great quality pictures and avoiding clichés. To help with this, get informal and write your profile quickly. Remember it’s not a LinkedIn post, and the best profiles communicate your personality. So let that shine!