No more catfish! Millennials are so sick of dating apps they're going back to ... trends now

While singles are spoiled for choice on dating apps, many have begun to drift away from nonstop swiping towards age-old ways of meeting people in real life. 

Millennials are now increasingly trying to find romance through speed dating or singles mixers rather than on their phone, where ghosting and romance scams have become extremely popular. 

This shift comes following the end of the Covid-19 pandemic - which had left many with dating app fatigue and desperate for a human connection. 

According to data from ticketing platform Eventbrite, attendance at in-person dating events in the US has grown 42 percent in 2023 from 2022.

Game-based dating events grew by 163 percent and athletic dating events such as pickleball and spin classes saw a 135 percent rise on the platform last year. 

Maria Avgitidis, CEO of matchmaking company Apage Match told CNN: 'The number one complaint I hear is that people are experiencing dating app fatigue.

'We have to go back to dating like it's 1988.'

Avgitidis also noted that return of in-person dating events is creating a resurgence of 'third spaces' that existed before apps where people could spontaneously get to know each other. 

'In-person events are mimicking as if you met through a friend. It's really hard to catch a vibe via text, and a lot of pressure on first dates when you have eliminated the time together before,' the CEO said. 

Many participants have also begun to document their experience and shared what happens at such events. 

Ally Ledford, a California based TikToker detailed her experience at an event last month in a series of videos and explained why she decided to participate. 

She said that she was hopeful about finding a partner at the event or simply meeting a group of women and making new friends. 

Ledford told her viewers that the organizers had sent an email that detailed what was going to happen at the event. 

'The email said that there was going to be a first block of dating, where you should expect to meet five to seven single people and that first block is like an hour. 

'I'm not good at math so I'm not even going to try to figure out how much that is with each person. Best guess, it's like 10 minutes with each person.

'After the first block of dating, there's going to be a 45 minute break where you can get another drink or talk to anyone who is not one of your matches for the night. 

'Then they're going to have a second block of speed dating that goes on for about an hour where again you are supposed to talk to five to seven matches. 

'And then at the end of the night, you submit a card with everybody you're interested in written on it, I guess. 

The next day, they email you a list of everybody who said they were interested in you even if wasn't mutual.' 

In a video shot at the event, she said that she had met with 14-15 people and described it as 'fun' and later went into detail about her conversations.