With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it seems like just about everyone is looking for a fairy tale, or is excited to tell their own. And here to help is Episode, a storytelling network and platform featuring interactive stories built for mobile. To date, 5.5 million users (most of whom are young women) have become authors in their own right, creating some 2.5 billion animated stories featuring original scripts and characters. And every once in awhile, Episode checks in with its fast-growing user base to better understand exactly what kinds of stories they’re interested in telling.
When the app asked about Valentine’s Day, it received 23,000 responses from young women around the nation, and now has a story of its own to tell about the future of dating, from the perspective of Generation Z.
For starters, it looks as though the future of dating lies in apps. Already, a plethora of options abound, including Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble. And while it may have been taboo when it first began, it now seems to be the way of the world — in fact, Episode found that 57 percent of respondents had never dated someone they met offline. That means 57 percent of respondents have exclusively dated people they met via an app or dating website. In fact, 50 percent of young women today say they exclusively date online.
Perhaps this penchant for efficiency when it comes to choosing a mate has also led to a general distaste for the hearts and flowers that come along with Valentine’s Day. 63 percent of Episode’s respondents said V-Day was overrated, and nearly 20 percent said they would rather celebrate with their friends (Galentine’s Day) than with a date.
If they do go out on a date, Episode’s data suggests that there’s a 14 percent chance of experiencing a first date on the most romantic day of the year. Conversely, there’s an 8 percent chance of experiencing a breakup.
Of course, you could always look at Valentine’s Day as just another day in the middle of the year. But if you’re looking to turn it into something more, you could turn it into a story by way of Episode.
