By Maine Veneracion. Should I just do one S? Or is that too serious? These were the kinds of micro-decisions we obsessed over when swiping and dating. In the carefully-designed world of online dating, every interaction felt like a calculated move. Which profile picture should you use? What should I put in my bio? Who should you swipe on? And yet, amid all these choices, one seemingly small decision swiping right on a medical student who lived less than two kilometers away turned out to be the best one I ever made.
At the time, I was working as a creative director and online editor for a youth publication. Despite constantly being at events, dating never really crossed my mind. Side note: If you strip it down to the basics, a dating app is basically LinkedIn but with better lighting.
Approach it with that mindset, and you might just walk away unscathed. No pressure, just seeing where things would go. In an unassuming bar in Katipunan, over a few drinks, we talked the night away. That was our deadline. When my husband and I matched, he was fresh from a long-term relationship and he was there to casually date. But in our case, we just took advantage of what the algorithm has set up. Whenever we disagreed, we figured it out.
This shifted my entire perspective on love. It was about shared values, communication, and compatibility. Attraction can only take you so far; the real work begins in the small, everyday decisions you make outside the app.
Online dating, though, has changed so much since The algorithms have evolved, user behavior has shifted, and the entire swiping culture feels different. A lot of my friends complain about dating fatigue, saying the well is running dry. The UI has been redesigned to front-load information. I get why people find it harder to connect.
