In a 2023 Pew questionnaire of US adults, nearly one-third of respondents said they had used an online dating site or app at least once. More than half of women who had used the apps reported feeling overwhelmed by the number of messages they had received in the past year, while 64% of men said they felt insecure from the lack of messages they had gotten. Though an overwhelming majority of men and women said they’d felt excited about people they connected with, an even-larger proportion of respondents said they were sometimes or often disappointed by their matches.

Online, it isn’t always easy to know whether the human behind an alluring profile is who and what they say they are. Even relatively innocuous virtual deceptions – such as outdated or ultraflattering photos of themselves that misrepresent how they look in person or fudged facts about their interests and accomplishments – can be disheartening. Then there are the people who fabricate or steal their entire profile, a practice known as “catfishing,” leaving anyone getting hit up by a stranger online justifiably skeptical. All these deceptions have left many people with dating-application exhaustion as they search for ways to take back some control of their romantic fate.

LinkedIn’s interest as a dating website, predicated on those who put it to use that way, ‘s the platform’s capability to hand back a number of one to handle and you may increase the quality of its applicants. As top-notch-marketing site requires pages so you’re able to link to its latest and you may previous employers’ character users, it has got a supplementary level out-of dependability you to definitely almost every other social-news programs run out of. Of a lot profiles free swedish dating site have very first-individual records of former associates and you may managers – genuine people who have real character pages.

Even for individuals who bashful out-of using LinkedIn to position to own schedules, the website was a chance-so you’re able to product to own vetting intimate individuals located courtesy traditional relationships apps or perhaps in-person experiences

Some users have taken this idea to the extreme. Last summer, a British expat in Singapore, Candice Gallagher, made waves after publish an excellent TikTok clips in which she said LinkedIn had “A-grade filters” for finding “A-grade men” – namely, doctors, lawyers, and “finance bros.” In the post, she touted the various filters you could use to track down ideal partners. More recently, a screenshot of the tech entrepreneur George Hotz’s LinkedIn bio was shared on X. In his bio, Hotz declared that he now used the site “exclusively as a dating platform” and laid out a catalog of requisite attributes – “intelligent, attractive, female, in or visiting San Diego” – for his ideal match. “Send me a message and invite me out for a drink,” he wrote.

“Social networking is one large matchmaking software,” John explained. “Whichever social media where you could get a hold of mans photographs is capable of turning towards the an internet dating application. And you will LinkedIn is even better because it is not just proving mans bogus life.”

A matter of concur

Charlotte Warren, a 30-year-old content creator who lives in Austin, sees things differently. Warren posts TikTok video clips regarding dating and has received more than her fair share of advances from unknown men on LinkedIn. Though she said that the men were usually reaching out under some flimsy guise of professional networking or “mentorship,” many had bare-bones profile pages that suggested they weren’t seriously using the platform for work. Several of her friends and colleagues across genders have received similar messages, she said, and were similarly put off by them.

“Someone uses LinkedIn in a different way, but I believe generally, individuals notice it rather invasive and you will poor” for all those to use it as a way to see close people, Warren said.