Jana Hocking: 'Tragic' way most people find love is no longer so taboo

Jana Hocking says she's a convert to the new norms of finding modern love. Photo / Instagram

Do you remember a time, quite a few years ago now, when you would find yourself on a lonely plan-free Sunday and would think, "I'll just jump on Tinder."

You would cringe as you uploaded your most attractive photos, wondering how you got to a point in life where you needed an app to find a boyfriend.

Then you'd laugh during the date as you came up with creative stories to tell people how you met. Perhaps at a distant friend's wedding? Because heaven forbid you actually admitted that you met on a tragic dating app. Oh no, that's only for desperados. And yet here you were … on a dating app date.

Well, thank the lord that times have changed. Now everybody is on them. In fact, I can unashamedly say I'm on two. (And darn it, if Raya would let me log on, let's face it, I would be on three!)

Like most of my friends, I do the ol' jump on for a week, log off for two, depending on how my social life is looking, and how bad the last date was.

They can sometimes be a little scarring those apps, especially when you turn up to a date and the bloke is 20kg heavier, and nowhere near as funny as he was during the initial text banter.

"That's it, I'M DONE with the apps!" myself or one of my friends will voluntarily rant at breakfast following a bad date. But then after a brief sojourn, you will give it one more go, and boom you've found yourself on a glorious date.

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That happened to me recently after a bloke stood me up just as I was ready to book the Uber.

I had been looking forward to it all day, but then he hit me with the old "I've got the flu and have had to get a Covid test" line that really halts plans.

I mean, to be fair, surely you knew that morning that the date wouldn't be happening so why the heck am I only finding out now once I've spent far too long with my curling wand and makeup brush?

Undeterred, I jumped on the app and decided I would find myself a damn date for that night.

As luck would have it, I matched with a bloke nearby and suggested we head to the pub for a beverage. Yes. Shameless.

Happily, he agreed and before you know it we've found ourselves seated at my favourite local with a vino in hand. I had very little expectations for this date, but within the hour we were laughing up a storm and having a jolly good time.

The rise of dating apps means it's no surprise that we're all finding ourselves at weddings of friends who met on one.

Yep, statistically, people are now more likely to find love and even end up married by jumping on the apps than anything else.

A recent study by the Marriage Foundation found that 29 per cent of couples met their partner through a dating app, compared with 24 per cent who met out and about. It found 21 per cent met at high school or uni, and only 11 per cent met at work.

With news that Bumble's founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, has just become a billionaire, are we really that shocked?!

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It just goes to show, that once you swipe past the creeps, weirdos and questionable profiles, there really are some diamonds in the rough. And if we're honest ... isn't that kinda what it's like in real life as well?

So sure, you might hear me whinge from time to time about the blokes my age who won't swipe right for anyone above the age of 25 years old, but every now and then you go on a date with a fellow swipe-righter and have an unexpectedly great time and think how bloody chuffed you are, that you gave it another red hot crack.

You never know when hubby might just be a swipe away.

Jana Hocking is a podcaster and collector of kind-of-boyfriends | @jana_hocking | Jana (with a J)