In the mold of old-school personal ads, Randa started sending out a weekly email blast advertising a Q&A with one “hot” person in New York looking for everything from a “Communicative Cutie” or a “Woman Who Appreciates the Past” to a “Current or Future DILF” or a “Man Who Affirms Himself.” Seeing that it might be a trend, the New York Times wrote about it.īut let’s face it, these are still online personals. It’s not fun anymore.” With her pitch down, she created a Substack last October called Hot Singles.
“People find real relationships off apps,” she says. Twenty-seven-year-old Randa Sakallah saw this “swipe fatigue” as a sign that her generation needed new ways to date (even if they’re still, inevitably, online).
But for what? Sometimes I wonder, like we all do: Is an app even the best way to find whatever that is, exactly? Not to sound too Carrie Bradshaw about the whole thing, but I kept thinking that in this massive sea of 8.4 million fucking fish, surely, for God’s sake, there must be an easier way to meet someone who isn’t awful. Like everyone else in their 20s, I don’t really remember a time when I was having sexual urges and wasn’t on Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, and/or Grindr - looking. At the beginning of the summer, our supposedly (and eventually kind of) sexy summer, I tried something new: I deleted all of my dating apps.
