MINNEAPOLIS — Last year, one in five people under 30 told Pew Research Center they found their current spouse or partner on a dating app, but in the year since, it appears that love affair with dating apps is waning, with many singles in their 20s yearning for a different kind of connection.
Finding love in the Twin Cities could hypothetically happen anywhere.
"To find a single dog walker," said 27-year-old Julia McClellan. "That's the hope."
But McClellan's expectations are grounded in reality.
"It's a lot of couples in this neighborhood," she said. "I live in a home. I feel like when you buy a house, I settled down with me now."
That's where dating apps come in.
"I'm on Hinge and Bumble," McClellan said.
But lately, she says they've felt like a chore.
"The overall sentiment from the majority of my friends who are on the apps — guys and girls — it's just... they're not having fun," McClellan said.
She poked fun at that struggle back in December on social media with a video showing the Christmas card she sent to her friends — with a picture of her and her dog. But she made her postage go a little further.
"Are you seeing this on my friend's fridge?" the card reads. "Are you a single male between the ages of 25 and 35, Hi, I'm Julia."
The card traveled far beyond her mailing list, even landing in the U.K.'s Daily Mail.
"It's been interesting," McClellan laughed. "It definitely made for an entertaining holiday season for me. There were a lot of wild (direct messages) that I got. I'm not looking to date someone my dad's age, so that was funny.
"I did get messages from inside prison, and I don't even know how that works. I didn't know that that was an option."
She also didn't know many others shared her frustration.
"I had people reaching out to me, saying, like 'I feel you,'" McClellan said. "This has been, for whatever reason, more than usual, not a great year for dating."
For dating apps themselves, it hasn't been a great few years. Since going public in February 2021, Bumble has seen it's stock tumble more than 80%, and Match Group, which now owns both Tinder and Hinge, has fallen more than 60% since also peaking in 2021.
"I don't claim to have the code cracked on what's wrong with the apps, but there's something not working," McClellan said.
That becomes even more clear on college campuses.
"There's really not a lot of people looking for a relationship on an online dating app," said Alex Emaci, an 18-year-old student at the University of Minnesota.
In a November survey of college students by Axios and Generation Lab, 79% of undergrad and graduate students said they don't use a dating app even once a month.
"So that's a pretty crazy number," said Erica Pandey, a business reporter for Axios. "Typically you'd think of college students as not necessarily looking for a long-term relationship, but what was really interesting was when we talked to some of our respondents in the survey, their biggest gripe, even as college students, with the apps was that so many of the people on there weren't looking for something serious."
Students at the University of Minnesota echoed that frustration.
"I wouldn't consider dating apps really an option for a serious relationship," said Owen Kise, a 22-year-old student.
"I'd rather meet people in person and see if I actually like them," said 21-year-old Kristin Weir.
"After a while, I just got a little disillusioned with it," said 22-year-old Nathan Barney.
Which isn't a good sign for dating apps.
"A lot of these companies — Tinder and Bumble — have spent a lot of money targeting college students," Pandey said. "They've done events on campuses, they've hired ambassadors, so they definitely think the college students are a target demographic, but these kids are more about the (in real life) meetups now."
In response., the apps are releasing Gen Z reports, promising to move beyond profile photos, and even looking to personalize subscriptions in an attempt to find more paid users.
And speaking of that.
"Subscribe — $150 total for six months. That's kind of a lot," McClellan said. "This is the app that's supposed to be deleted, so why am I paying for six months? ... I have some questions."
One thing she doesn't question is the investment she made in those Christmas cards.
"One of the guys that I went out with, he actually was wing-womaned so well by his mother that I was like, 'OK, I've got to go out with this guy because she did a really great job. ... His mom saw the story and reached out to me ... sent photos of him and here's all of his accolades," McClellan said. "Just so Mom, even a photo of him as a child."
Though it didn't work out, she says she'd rather spend money on postage than an online profile.
"They were enjoyable experiences ... that gives you the hope to keep trying because you're like 'OK, that's a good person and I'm sure there's other ones," McClellan said. "You've got to keep the hope."
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