C‘was a time when you relied on fate to find your soul matea stolen glance or the classic “let me meet a friend” during dinner. Then Dating apps have arrived And compulsive swiping on the screen to approve or discard a profile. Today, the wheel seems to have turned back. In the beating heart of London, in various venues, the format is becoming popular “Date my Mate” (let my friend out), a new way of meeting that uses a completely unexpected tool: PowerPoint.
In London, love is sought with PowerPoint
The “Date my Mate” it’s already a new London trend: it’s an event where singles no longer have to sell themselves through laboriously written biographies and strategic selfies. Their closest friends do it for them, armed with a projectorremote control and a series of slides studied down to the smallest detail. The phenomenon arises from a collective tiredness towards the digital world.
Goodbye dating apps?
According to recent data from Global Dating Insightsan international observatory that analyzes trends in the dating market, the use of the ten dating platforms most famous in the UK it has fallen 16% in the last year. Many users, especially among Millennials and Gen Z, complain about negative experiences, fake profiles or the coldness of knowledge mediated only by a screen.
Back to reality
The return to the pub represents the desire to touch reality firsthand, but with the irony typical of contemporary culture. Prepare company presentations it has now become a “second language” for office workers; transfer these skills from marketing to the sentimental market it was a short step and terribly fun.
How a love pitch works
The atmosphere during these events is electric. The tables are filled with young people wearing identification stickers: “Date” for those looking for a date And “Mate” for those who are only there as a supporter or presenter. The heart of the evening is the pitch, for the less experienced, a technical term that indicates a quick and effective presentation to convince an interlocutor, during which an friend goes on stage And he has two minutes to “place” his adventure companion.
Date my Mate: the friend instead of the cold Tinder bio
The slides are not boring Excel tables, but a mix of embarrassing holiday photos, funny anecdotes and an honest list of pros and cons. There are those who introduce their structural engineer friend promising that “it will support the relationship as it supports the walls” and those who confess their candidate’s most bizarre secret dreams, such as writing fantasy novels. Humor is key: a friend can tell the truth about your flaws by making them seem adorable, something no one would ever write in a cold Tinder bio.
The charm of technological vintage
Despite the use of technology, participants describe the experience as something “retro”. It is a return to personal reference, to the guarantee of a third person who shows his faceand the slides, to describe the best. Organizing these events, moreover, it became a sold-out business in minutesa demonstration that the need to socialize in a physical and playful way is stronger than ever. And, in an increasingly automated world, love seems to have found a new refuge between a beer and a collective laugh. Now, say whether the future of romantic encounters really passes through a power point it’s still early to say, for sure, but partner hunting has never been so fun.
