Dating burnout: meet the people who ditched the apps – and found love offline

Internet dating can feel soul-destroying, unnerving and transactional. Couples explain how their love lives were transformed when they finally stopped swiping

When Georgie Thorogood's date made a sleazy joke about horsey girls carrying whips", she knew it was time to make a hasty exit. After meeting Tom through a dating app in the summer of 2021, she had been hoping for some polite conversation over a few drinks, maybe some romantic chemistry if she was lucky. What she got was a two-hour rant about his ex-wife and some creepy innuendo. I knew straight away he wasn't for me. I politely told him I didn't want to see him again, but he took the rejection really badly. I work in music communications and at the time I was setting up a festival. He started getting aggressive and telling me that I was destined to fail," she says. I don't know how he could possibly know that, as he didn't ask me a single question about myself all night."

Her bad experience, which came after months of mindless swiping, was the final straw for Georgie, 40. Not only did I find dating apps soul-destroying, I was also happy with my single life, so I decided to quit them completely and focus on that instead," she says. I found so many of the men on apps had serious issues, too. Another guy became abusive when I turned down an offer to meet for a walk in a remote location because it didn't feel safe. You never know who people are online." While Georgie acknowledges that people with emotional baggage aren't exclusive to dating sites, she feels the apps give them a chance to hide their bad behaviour. The problem is that you don't have to reflect or make changes when something goes wrong - you can just swipe to the next person."