Generation Z is sometimes criticized for slang tendency or its Attitude towards the workforce. But this generation faces very different challenges than their predecessors. Young people are slowing down their pursuit of the American dream of finding Mr. Right, owning a home and having children.
But it’s not because Gen Z doesn’t want to find love, according to a report competition group Shared exclusively with Harris Poll wealth. In fact, their survey of 2,500 randomly selected U.S. adults revealed that 80% of Gen Z said they believe they will find true love, making them the most optimistic generation about finding love. However, only 55% of Gen Z believe they are actually ready for a partnership.
Therein lies the “readiness paradox,” a phenomenon that prevents Gen Z from taking the first step toward a serious relationship, and subsequently toward marriage and children. Although more than Half of Gen Z say they feel lonely Despite online connections, 48% of Gen Z women said they felt extra pressure to be in a relationship for the “right reasons” and not just to avoid loneliness. This cycle leaves young people trapped in loneliness, which is exacerbated by the pressures of social media, such as the fear of “difficult” relationships.
“It makes perfect sense to be in a state of paralysis like, I want this, I want a relationship, but I don’t feel ready yet, so I don’t do it,” Chine Mmegwa, head of strategy, corporate development and business operations Chine Mmegwa competition group,Tell wealth. “What they’re afraid of is failure. What they’re afraid of is that the other person isn’t ready.”
Match Group defines this phenomenon as a “self-reinforcing cycle” in which Gen Z sets the bar high for readiness for relationships, then becomes anxious about being alone, then craves new relationships, believes they’re not ready, waits longer, experiences more loneliness, and then the cycle repeats.
Part of the reason for this cycle is that Gen Z is more focused than other generations on personal growth, healing and investments that define success. According to the Match Group report, nearly 60% of Gen Z women say therapy is crucial to a successful relationship, and nearly 50% say setting and respecting healthy boundaries is a major sign of readiness for a relationship. Therefore, they may be more likely to postpone an appointment.
The report could serve as a launchpad for Match Group and other dating app companies to rethink how to best serve Gen Z consumers, Some of them have abandoned these applications When they do have functionality that can be related to it. But now Tinder has launched more casual modes for Gen Z, such as through the dual date feature and college mode, allowing this generation to meet more people with the same relationship goals.
For a generation that is returning to a desire to meet in real life, this is a step in the right direction.
“This is how Gen Z wants to communicate,” Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff previously said explain. “They want to create their own atmosphere by meeting people.”
Reprioritize milestones
Unlike some other reports about Gen Z’s love lives, they don’t reject romance. Instead, they reschedule their lives under economic and social pressures.
Match Group reports that nearly half of Gen Z say they are not ready for a relationship right now, and 75% are not rushing into a relationship. But equally, 80% said they believed they would find true love.
According to the Match Group report, “They believe that when they work on themselves, their relationships will become stronger.” “And they’re more likely to wait until they can look their best to give themselves the best chance of a successful relationship.”
While this may sound like worrying news for a company trying to appeal to the latest generation, Mmegwa isn’t shying away from the challenge.
Gen Z “still wants our products to solve really big problems. They still want our products and appointments to solve the things that matter most to them,” she said. “It’s just a matter of when and how they use our product, which is very different from previous generations.”
This generation also has very different views on whether their parents and grandparents’ relationships were happy, the report said: Only 37% believe these relationships were happy, while 34% of Gen Z women also believe that resolving issues in past relationships shows they are ready.
The vicious cycle of social media
highly submerged and Invest in social media It also exacerbates the preparedness paradox. While 46% of Gen Z “soft-launched” relationships, compared with 27% overall, 81% believed it was an iron-clad deal and feared backlash for failing publicly.
This differs from how other generations view public relationships: “You can also do a hard launch and then delete the photos the next day, and that’s okay,” Mmegwa says.
But for Gen Z, relationship performance pressure can still create a cycle: high readiness standards lead to loneliness, ultimately leading them to pursue lower-stakes or casual relationships that rarely escalate into more serious relationships.
Instagram Exacerbating stalling. 46% of Gen Z choose “soft launch” relationships, compared with 27% overall, while 81% of hard launch relationships view them as iron-clad commitments and fear public failure. Mmegwa highlights this generational shift: “You can also do a hard boot and then delete the photos the next day, and it doesn’t matter.” This “performance pressure” creates a cycle: high readiness standards lead to loneliness (more than 50% of people feel lonely despite online connections), which triggers low-risk connections that rarely escalate.
“For us, the focus is on how to bring people together and encourage them to return to face-to-face contact,” Hinge CEO Jackie Jantos previously said. Tell wealth. Hinge is part of the Match Group, like Tinder, Match and OkCupid.
How Match Group plans to solve the readiness paradox
Match Group plans to meet Gen Z: they will keep introducing “Low Pressure” Toolssuch as Tinder’s dual date feature and college mode.
Cleo Long, Tinder’s senior director of global product marketing, previously said: “The idea is really to help our users have control over what they’re looking for at a given moment and be able to find that content more easily.” wealth.
Mmegwa said using the report as a roadmap for new product initiatives, future features may include things like preparing signals, and more curated matches will be important.
“It’s no longer a game of speed and volume,” she said. “It’s really about having our algorithms help you understand yourself better and then help you understand the person on the other end of the connection better.”