Most of us are familiar with LinkedIn being used for work or professional purposes but it turns out that the platform is now being used by Gen Z as a dating app.
In a report made by Business Insider, one Gen Z interviewee stated that she uses the platform to look for someone who has a stable job and is preferably well-off. She also made it clear that she is not looking for a sugar daddy but someone who can actually take care of themselves.
Through LinkedIn, she believed that she could assess a potential romantic partner with their listed work history, educational background, and career goals to know whether they match their ideal criteria for a partner.
A professor of sociology from Temple University, Dustin Kidd, states that using LinkedIn as a dating app came from a tradition of “dating hacks” with the use of online tools that have been used for a different purpose in order to catch a date.
Kidd mentioned that the key factor to this occurrence is the use of the direct messaging (DMs) feature.
“The design of LinkedIn helps to maintain its focus on the professional, but any platform with a direct-messaging option is likely to also be used to pursue sex and dating,” he stated.
This report implies that any social media platform wherein you can view a person’s picture has the possibility of being turned into a dating app. One of the advantages of LinkedIn is that it goes beyond the curated life of a person.
Curious netizens took to social media to share what they had to say about LinkedIn being turned into a dating app.
linkedin is not a dating site pls
— hann (@heyitshannahj) January 10, 2024
NO WAY PPL ARE USING LINKEDIN AS A DATING SITE NOW SHEHABBZSBBSBABvsvzbb😭😭 imagine getting the "___ wants to connect" notif and they mean ROMANTIC connection 😭😭😭
— franz kazka (@ngabrutisme) January 7, 2024
saw someone post that Gen Z are using linkedin as a dating app? Like what??? bro thats so funny
— Madhatter’s house of madness 🎃👻💀 (@Madhur2090) January 13, 2024
Sorry to say but getting an instant text right after accepting a connection on LinkedIn is so irritating.
Why can't some people treat it as a professional platform rather than a dating app?
📍— Kashmala.Ishfaq (@IshfaqKashmala) January 8, 2024
https://twitter.com/Anti___Human/status/1745474806634479765?s=20
Since when did #LiNKEDiN become a dating app for Gen Z? 😭😭😭😭
This is hilarious yet so unfortunate.— Big dog, small world ⚓ (@casualbandit_) January 7, 2024
Ginagawa na palang dating App ang LinkedIn? 😩 Kaya pala ang daming invites and messages recently lol
— Marian Castro (@Braeshii) January 11, 2024
Linkedin is not dating app😂
Keep it professional !— Narendra choudhary (@ChoudharyNarend) January 7, 2024
More than 1000 female users on LinkedIn were surveyed about romance on the platform. Although it is not strictly scientific, a whopping 91% reported that they have received inappropriate messages on the site.
Caitlin Begg, a communications consultant, has her theories that the rise of interest in using LinkedIn for dating comes from a person feeling like they are disconnected from others. She stated that more people are craving or seeking a more genuine and slower form of connection.
“Notification culture — phone brain — has kind of overtaken things,” Begg said. “As it pertains to dating apps, I think everyone, especially post COVID, has become a little bit jaded. We’re sick of the same prompts from the same dating apps and the same kinds of outreach.”
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