Tuesday, May 08, 2018

In many rural areas, dating gets tricky, but apps can help

Dating can be complicated for anyone, but it can be much more daunting if you live in a rural area. So many young people leave their rural hometowns for city life, that pickings can be slim, Rachael Vasquez reports for Wisconsin Public Radio. That means it's hard to meet strangers or go on a date without kicking up the town gossip mill. The other alternative? Being willing to drive long distances to the closest city to date.

Kris Evans, who lives in rural Wisconsin, joked about how hard it was for country folks to find a date without driving for hours: "I kind of laughingly call it 'city privilege,'" he told Vasquez.

But the proliferation of dating apps like Tinder, Grindr, and Farmers Only has helped rural people meet potential dates more easily than previous generations, even though they still sometimes find themselves driving to nearby cities to make it work, Vasquez reports.

Catalina Toma of the University of Wisconsin, who studies relationships and online dating, told Vasquez there can be benefits to a smaller dating pool: "When you have fewer people to choose from, you might be more committed to them and more willing to give your all to that relationship and more willing to work on it."

No comments: