My own experience is that I met my now wife right after I ditched dating apps and decided to enjoy life with friends instead. Or to be precise, I met her before that, but didn't care to speak and socialize with her.

Dating apps never worked to me because I was inexperienced and wanted to take my time to get to know the person (I mean like meeting a few times over a few weeks or months), but on dating apps there is this commonly shared nonsense that the first date and impression must all be perfect, or it's doomed.

My advice would be to make friends, spend as much time as you can outside (or meetups when friends are not an option) meeting random people in various contexts.

Also a couple of considerations:

- Love at first sight is a trap. It is more likely that 'the one' will seem 'meh' to you at first. You need to meet people multiple times to get to know them.

- Don't only meet people that are potential dating material. It is very important not to have this mindset, because it affects your behavior and image negatively. Socializing with people of both genders and all ages is also a very important part of that.

I think it's just healthier. You go out and have a good time. Getting a date is just icing on the cake. You do online dating, anything short of success is a failure.

Plus you get to vet people before creating any expectations of an outcome.

While reading your post I was thinking the same thing but the parent comment put it a lot more elegantly than I could lmao. I don't really have a lot of advice because a) I'm quite young and I've never dated someone and b) I don't really want kids, but I'm replying to let you know that I wish you all the best!

You are a love. Thank you so much for your encouragement.

Sorry for hijacking the comment. This is not specifically for you. I think all people should try to adopt instead of procreating. Having child by procreation is kind of selfish if you think, the child never asked for it, but we are forcing them to exist and go though all the problems of life. Bringing them to consciousness just to satisfy our needs and goals. Nobody reproduces by thinking anything beneficial for the child. There is also uncertain future now.

By contrast, there are plenty of kids who are alone and would be grateful if someone gives the the love of parents. There are already here, no need to bring more. Why is having shared genes is necessary if you just want to love a child?

Socializing beats dating apps!

1. Do things you like 2. Where would the guy you want to date go to socialize?

Good question! I think the guy I'd love would be a generous nerd, who is more handsome than he realizes. So maybe I'd go to hackathons or volunteer at soup kitchens. What do you think?

I think you'd get very different people at those two. Perhaps stereotyping, but do you want more career driven or socially driven?

I've met some really interesting people at maker spaces. Never dated anyone there.

I always thought habitat for humanity would be cool/useful/fun/have interesting people, but they don't do it around here.

I haven't been, but you might try https://austinswingsyndicate.org/

I always make better friends when I'd go places regularly. When I was younger, I'd hop around to a new place frequently. I didn't build lasting friendships this way. Find something you'd like to do for a while.

Volunteering to help out at events can lead to meeting more people.