When NATO means 'not attached to outcome'

Dating app Tinder is back with its yearend data, reporting live from the romance battlefield. And this is what we know so far: mating is still fashionable though mating calls have changed their lexicon. Is this just semantics or a modern turn with deeper roots, let’s ask Tinder.

Experience trumps endings, with NATO the new mantra: Not Attached To Outcome. (Just in case you boringly thought North Atlantic Treaty Organization.) Youngsters today, now that we have the stats of 2023, believe in having a good time, in hanging out and being cool. They are not bombarding each other with cliched texts like ‘we need to talk’ and ‘where is this going?’ That was for the generation past. For today’s Romeos and Juliets, it is ‘come as you are and go as you are’, the journey more important than the destination when getting to know someone. How does this end? No one cares.

In 2023 everyone dated ‘for the plot’. No end goal in mind, only fun stories to tell your friends. More gup-shup around the campfire rather than commitment, confetti and wedding vows. According to Melissa Hobley, chief marketing officer at Tinder, 69 percent of Gen Z want to challenge conventional dating and relationship norms. She says: ‘This year in particular marked a major shift where the journey is more important than the outcome. This new generation of daters is showing us what it means to date for the possibilities, freeing themselves from traditional expectations, allowing them to write their own, worthwhile stories.’

It has been a year of main character energy, all about prioritising one’s own happiness over all else. And really if one can’t love oneself, can they love another? Self-love has to be the basic ingredient in all love stories. The top global date emoji on Tinder was Always "On". Signalling openness and optimism, a readiness to try anything and everything anywhere and everywhere. The delusional, growing more self-aware, were checking themselves, with ‘if you are delulu, I’m your solulu’ and ‘tall, dark and delulu’ examples of Indian bios. And the bouquet is officially the ultimate delulu emoji.