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If you ask your parents how they met, it’s likely they’ll say at school, at work or through mutual friends but new research has revealed moms and dads are increasingly getting together the digital way.
A study by dating platform eharmony and the Imperial College Business School in the UK, has identified 2035 as the year when more people will start meeting their partners online rather than offline.
This modern way of meeting has resulted in a growing number of so-called “e-babies” with more than 2,5 million babies born to e-couples in the UK in the past two decades.
That figure is expected to rise, with the stats predicting that four in 10 babies born by 2030 will be e-babies with the figure rising to over half in 2037.
What’s more, the research shows that more than a third of online couples who went on to have a baby, did so within a year of meeting.
The survey of over 4 000 adults also focused on dating trends in the past four years.
The next most common introductions took place at work (23%) followed by hook-ups through mutual friends (12%) or via social media (7%).
During the ’70s and early ’80s one in five couples (22%) met at clubs or bars, fast forward to today and now only one in 14 – 7% – meet this way.
The data also highlighted how quickly the trend of online hook-ups has picked up.
Between 2005 and 2014 only 19% of relationships started digitally with that figure rising to 32% between 2015 and 2019.
And experts insist that more and more lovebirds will have digital beginnings in the coming years.
By 2035, the report says we’ll reach a “tipping point” where more than 50% of relationships will begin online.
“The digital world has streamlined the online dating process, making it easier to find someone while ensuring that they match your criteria,” says Dr Paolo Taticchi, principal teaching fellow at London’s Imperial College Business School. “2035 will be an instrumental year for finding love and begin a new era of 21st century dating.”
Sources: Daily Mail, Imperial, eharmony
