Dating in Your 20s: Straight answers about dating in your twenties. No hacks, no rules, no pretending you didn't reread the text nine times.
Dating nowHow do most couples meet now? The 2026 answerApps are the single biggest way couples meet, and the share keeps climbing. But the bigger story for your 20s is what apps replaced: the friend who used to set you up, and the strangers you'd never have met otherwise.Up next
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Dating nowClear-coding: saying what you want before date two
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Dating nowHow to tell someone you like them without the cringe
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SituationshipsShould you get a gift for someone you just started dating?
Brutal breakupBreak up before the holidays or after? A week-by-week look
Dating nowShould you move for your partner? How to decide
Apps and textingDry texter, or just not interested?
Is it a situationship, or am I overthinking it?
Pick up where you left off
Topics
Trending Experts
See all- Credentialed source
Alexandra H. Solomon
Relational self awareness, dating and building lasting relationships, drawn from her couples work and her Northwestern course.
Watch: Relational Self-Awareness: The Key to Navigating Modern Love
- Trending voice
Blaine Anderson
Dating coach for men who talks about dating app profiles, first dates, and how women experience modern dating.
Watch: Blaine Anderson (Dating Coach) on TYSO, #318
- Credentialed source
Justin J. Lehmiller
Research on sex, desire, casual relationships and friends with benefits.
Watch: 10 Questions About Sex
By the numbers
53%
of adults ages 18 to 29 have ever used a dating site or app.
Pew Research Center, 2023. 6,034 U.S. adults, July 2022.
67%
of Gen Z singles have used AI in their dating lives.
Kinsey Institute and Match, Singles in America, 2026. About 5,000 U.S. singles.
78%
of recent dating app users have felt burned out by the apps at least sometimes.
Forbes Health and OnePoll, 2024. 1,000 U.S. adults who used a dating app in the past year.
1 in 3
unmarried adults ages 22 to 35 are actively dating.
Wheatley Institute and Institute for Family Studies, 2026. 5,275 unmarried U.S. adults ages 22 to 35.
Worth reading elsewhere
See allPew Research Center, 2023
The who, where and why of online dating in the U.S. (opens pewresearch.org)Survey numbers on who uses dating apps, which ones, and why, with a close look at adults under 30.
NPR (Life Kit), 2020
The art of breaking up, from 'the talk' to moving on (opens npr.org)Practical guidance on ending things kindly and on what helps in the weeks after.
NPR, 2024
Our quest for romance through dating apps is only making us lonelier, studies find (opens npr.org)Reports on studies linking heavy app use to loneliness, useful if swiping has started to feel worse than not dating.
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