Culture

The “Deleting Dating Apps” Meme Is A Hilarious Reminder That “Old-Fashioned” Romance Is Bonkers

"Deleting dating apps because I want to meet someone the old-fashioned way (making eye contact with a cute stranger I'll never see again on commute)"

by Michelle Rennex  16 June 2021
Deleting My Dating Apps To Meet Someone The Old Fashioned Way meme

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Let’s be real, trying to find love in the modern world is tough because dating apps give a person far too much choice these days.

In philosophy, this concept is called The Paradox of Choice, which is basically a fancy way of saying giving a person too many choices makes them not want to make any selection because there’s this constant fear of missing out on the “better option”.

And when it comes to dating apps, it’s true. It’s hard to settle on the first good match you make because you know there is always going to be someone else out there.

Just look at how many dating apps are currently on the market. Between Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Her, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish, Grinder and Badoo, there are so many options that it’s almost overwhelming. And honestly, sometimes you really just have to delete your dating apps and take a breather because there are just too many choices available.

Well, lucky for everyone who’s fed up with modern dating, Twitter has banded together to provide some “old-fashioned ways” to help you find love once you ditch the apps. Enter: The ‘Deleting Dating Apps Because I Want To Meet Someone The Old-Fashioned Way’ meme.

Like with anything that happens online, ‘Deleting Dating Apps Because I Want To Meet Someone The Old-Fashioned Way’ is just one huge pisstake, but it sure is funny.

The whole thing began at the start of June when @ronnypascale tweeted that he had deleted all his dating apps to find love the traditional way by “looking for women to untie from train tracks” — an obvious reference to the common “damsel in distress” cinema trope that started in the 1800s.

From here, @jzux made the same joke but instead chose to reference the classic high school-required watch, Holes. In Holes, one character named Sam famously exchanges a huge-ass bag of onions for some spiced peaches from his crush, Miss Katherine. Because obviously nothing screams traditional romance like a hefty bag of root vegetables.

Naturally, people turned “Deleting My Dating Apps” into a full-blown meme by adding a number of baffling romance plotlines to highlight the ridiculousness of a lot of “old-fashioned” markers of romance.

For example, the whole concept of Edward Cullen ~romantically~ stalking Bella all because he wanted her blood in Twilight and Jay Gatsby constantly throwing expensive parties in the hopes of Daisy one day joining in The Great Gatsby don’t really leave the best impression.

But some people took the concept of “old-fashioned dating” more seriously, and shared the real ways they try to date people without the use of modern-day apps.

Of course, there are the classics of being absolutely shit-faced at the bar and getting cat-called on the street, but then there’s the ultimate modern love story: Making eye contact with strangers on public transport who you’ll never see again.

However, my personal favourite old-fashioned way of finding love is by staying at home and doing nothing at all but still expecting all potential partners to come find me.

Oh, how I love love.