How Gen Z destroyed flirting: This is how young people try to score a date today

Liking an Instagram Story or sliding into someone’s DMs are ways to express romantic interest in the digital age, but technology may actually have made it harder for singles trying to score a date.Gen Zers especially struggle to master the art of flirting in an era of social media and dating apps.“I think flirting is dying,” Los Angeles resident Nikki Sanjongco, 24, told NBC News.“If someone thinks you’re cute, they just ask for your Instagram these days and then DM you or swipe up on your story to show they’re interested.”The state of dating today has been described as exhausting, as women online lament the nightmarish difficulties of trying to find a man.

They complain that many men are “bad texters,” and also have abysmal pick-up lines.A 2022 article from The Times highlighted some of the cringe-worthy methods of flirtation used by men online, such as this one-liner: “The only thing I want to strip off is your mind so I could caress your every thought and make love to your notions and perceptions.”In fact, it’s so dreadful that entire Instagram pages are now dedicated to sharing some of the most pathetic attempts to flirt via text.It’s a peculiar conundrum, “flirt coach” Benjamin Camras said, that has yielded a “love-hate relationship” with dating apps because people want to delete them, but also “feel like we have to be on them.”“Like, how else am I supposed to meet people?” said 38-year-old Camras, who said the act of flirting should “be ultimately fun,” not scary.And while platforms like Hinge and Bumble allow singles to put their best selves forward, that “highlight reel” they present isn’t necessarily a true representation of themselves and can lead to a disconnect when meeting in-person, he added.“When it feels like a performance, when it feels like you’re trying to get someone to like you or see you in a certain way or you’re looking for that external validation or for that approval, you’re comp...