Home » Lifestyle. Tara Penny formed a focus group at the station, interviewing single colleagues to understand their experiences and perceptions of online dating. Picture: iStock. Hookups, one-night stands or long-term relationships.
Dating apps can deliver any of those. The mechanics of it all intrigued Hot The back story behind the series emerged from listener curiosity about which dating apps were most effective and secure. What are the safe ones? But her curiosity was really piqued when a casual observation at work provided a bit of a mystery. Penny sought out author Susan Ben Dory, a dating expert in the United States, who suggested that these fish pictures could be linked to a kind of prehistoric impulse.
Driven by a blend of curiosity and journalistic investigative impulse, Penny formed a focus group at the station, interviewing single colleagues to understand their experiences and perceptions of online dating.
She undertook the task of rewriting their dating profiles based on their responses to a series of personal questions to capture their true essence more accurately than they might themselves. The revised profiles led to some revealing and often amusing findings. One notable discovery involved a man on the opposite side of the app who was caught sending identical messages to multiple women in the focus group.
She also uncovered discrepancies in how individuals portrayed their lifestyles versus reality. People go to considerable lengths to curate their online image. Typically, South African nuances like loadshedding were also unexpectedly influencing dating decisions, with potential couples planning meetups around electricity availability.
