Forever Single Statistics
Dating apps: love them or hate them, they’ve become the default tool for finding connection—and for people like Eric, a 42-year-old marketing pro and self-declared "forever single," they’ve become a numbers game. Literally.
On this week’s episode of The Meat Market, Eric broke down his dating life with the kind of precision usually reserved for sales pipelines. In 2023, he matched with around 130 women, chatted with about half, and only met a third in person. “Dating apps suck,” he said bluntly. After 24 first dates in one year, his longest relationship still capped at six months.
But this isn’t a story about bitterness. It’s about brutal honesty, experimentation, and the hope that maybe—just maybe—the next date could be the one.
Eric’s “double play” dating formula (Pomo for pizza and wine, followed by gelato) boasts a second-date success rate close to 90%. He’s perfected it over time, approaching romance with the same logic he applies to marketing funnels. But data can’t always account for human unpredictability: a woman who spoke in one-word answers, a birthday card addressed to the wrong name, a date from a recently escaped cult family. These aren’t just red flags—they’re plot twists.
And yet, underneath the spreadsheets and sarcasm, Eric remains a gentleman. He holds doors. He listens. He asks questions—and he’s frustrated when others don’t. His biggest turnoff? A lack of curiosity. “I just want someone to ask me something,” he said, summing up what so many daters feel but rarely say out loud.
Eric knows he’s not perfect—he calls out his own beige flags, from picky eating to a sports obsession—but he owns them. That self-awareness, paired with a refusal to give up, makes his story less about swipes and stats and more about staying human in a digital world.
For anyone out there doing the dating dance—tired, hopeful, and maybe just a little jaded—Eric’s journey is a reminder: connection is still possible, even when the odds (and the apps) feel stacked against you.
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