In 2024, singles will put their own well-being above everything else. Avoiding following dictates, remaining yourself, quality before quantity… these trends all have one goal: self-acceptance and the importance of oneself in love.
Prioritizing the self would be one of the major trends in dating in 2024, according to a Bumble report carried out with around 30,000 users of the application around the world. The singles surveyed generally place more value on their emotional vulnerability, self-love and their priorities.
Be yourself
Between personal development podcasts and the calibrated lifestyles advocated on social networks, many singles would like to put an end to the quest for perfection, or at least question it. According to Bumble, 55% of people surveyed feel compelled to constantly strive for improvement. In 2024, stop constantly trying to be a better version of yourself. This trend is called “betterment burnout”. Two thirds of the women surveyed (68%) plan to make decisions for themselves and their own happiness, far from imposed diktats. 40% of them now only want to meet people who will not try to change them.
“Singles are now turning more inward, working on themselves and shedding the expectations of age, perfection, and traditional societal deadlines to prioritize to meetings with people who are more vulnerable and who accept who they are“, comments Meg Gagnard, Marketing Manager Europe at Bumble.
Consider mental health
Similarly, singles want to place a stronger emphasis on their emotions and mental health. And this is called “consider dating”. In summary, we take our emotions into consideration when starting a romantic relationship. Indeed, according to the report, a third of respondents (31%) practice “slow dating”, consisting of taking their time discovering a potential partner step by step. More than half of single people (58%) admit to talking more openly about their mental health with others.
More than a third of women (36%) actively seek out people who take time off and take care of themselves mentally. This echoes the trend identified by Bumble during the pandemic and the rejection of the “jobification” of love, with a quarter (25%) of singles no longer wanting to see their date as a checklist to be completed.
More vulnerability among men?
On the men’s side, the expression of vulnerability seems to be democratized with “open hearted masculinity”. A quarter of the men surveyed say they have become more vulnerable with the people they date over the past two years. And this would have a positive effect on their mental health for 25% of them. Nearly a third (32%) say mental health has become one of the most important aspects of a relationship.
In Europe, men seem less concerned by the trend of open-hearted masculinity, since only 17% say they are more open to the people they date. The French are still under pressure from stereotypes of traditional masculinity, according to Bumble. A third of French men talk about their emotions, compared to 54% worldwide. They are also less inclined “to challenge gender roles” (29% vs 49%).
