After deciding to endorse a ban on same-sex marriage at their annual convention last week, the religious institution's annual convention came to a close. Now, we can finally breathe. Sort of.
Our city, whose night sky is hallmarked by the “Dallas Phallus,” still has its fair share of permanent traditionalists, many of whom just so happen to be young and single. As Dallas — and to a greater degree, the United States as a whole — moves further from the casual hookup culture and instead reverts to chaste traditions from a growing political divide, so does the growth of a conservative Gen Z dating scene. Now, dating apps and daters alike are shifting their priorities to account for the re-emergence of purity culture, a set of beliefs prioritizing abstinence before marriage, particularly popular in the Bible Belt Christian circles.
“This generation of Gen Z, 18 to 28 – it’s not a hookup generation. They don’t drink as much alcohol, they don’t have as much sex,” Spencer Rascoff said at a Wall Street Journal event. “We need to adapt our products to accept that reality.”
The rise of conservatism is undeniable, and voter statistics prove it. In the polarizing 2024 presidential election, an important new voting demographic, young white men casting a ballot for the first time, emerged as a crucial weapon for President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The trend has become prominent enough to merit a feature story titled "The Cruel Kids’ Table," splashed on the cover of New York Magazine’s January issue with SMU student Anna Claire Howland front and center on the glossy front page. If that’s not enough proof, according to the 48th Harvard Youth Poll, conducted by the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, 26% of men ages 18-24 identified as conservative where whereas 21% of men ages 25-29 classified themselves the same way.
The numbers don’t lie.
RIP Dating Apps (2009-2025)
If Tinder’s massive rebrand away from the go-to app for finding an easy one-night stand is any indication, people are straying from dating apps, tired of the commodification of human beings, says Adam Cohen-Aslatei, CEO of matchmaking service Three Day Rule.“The game is not fun anymore,” says Cohen-Aslatei. “The game is old, the game has not been updated, and we're bored, and we want something else. But the reality is we're bored and we want something else because largely [apps have] not fulfilled [their] promise. Dating apps have a 9% success rate.”
Cohen-Aslatei has been working in the dating industry since 2007, before the advent of the apps. He even worked at Austin-based Bumble before becoming disenchanted with the algorithmic design of apps, instead pursuing the more meaningful matchmaking services his company aims to provide.
“If you are looking for a long-term relationship, if you're looking to really connect with a person on a deeper level, dating apps leave you wanting more,” he says. “They can be good for casual encounters, maybe dating practice, but oftentimes the intention misaligns. Also in dating apps, the filtering that you're doing is 95% superficial.”
Gen Z now makes up the vast majority of the dating scene above 18, and they’re not particularly fond of dating apps, says Cohen-Aslatei.
“Casual encounters were fun when Tinder first launched... But we've been doing this for 12 years, and we want more. I think that people's attitudes have also changed… I think that dating apps, oftentimes leave you wanting more, [and] have fallen out of favor.”
Tinder, a stronghold on the hierarchy of dating apps, has been hit the hardest by the exodus as downloads have steadily dropped every year since 2020.
In essence, Gen Z, whether influenced by purity culture or not, just isn’t down to clown around.
“I think this generation now is shifting, and they really do want an emotional connection, and they want more,” says Cohen-Aslatei. “I think that's why you're seeing a pretty huge emergence of matchmaking within the US, but also with younger demographics.”
Newfound prudence isn’t the only factor reshaping the dating scene — political alignment is really important to singles dating in the current climate, says the matchmaker.
“My personal view is that politics has become a core value for so many people,” he says. “I don't think it used to be that way. But if your political party doesn't believe in my existence and my rights, it becomes a deal-breaker for a lot of people.”
Purity Culture and Dating Is Nothing New To The Bible Belt
Jake Hall, a 33-year-old divorcee and Dallas single, grew up in a highly religious community west of Fort Worth. He always attended church, as it was all there was to do in his tiny town. Growing up, he was told to wait until marriage or perish in hell’s fiery blazes.When he graduated from Abilene Christian University and moved to Dallas, he went straight to the church. It was a good way to meet new people with similar perspectives in a big city. Soon after, he met his now-ex-wife. Their relationship, although notedly good for the most part, was on a fast track for marriage, says Hall.
“That's what purity culture does, it seeps in there really early on and kind of sets your expectations for what you think you need, what you think you should want or how you should proceed," he says. "The marriage dissolved due to several other reasons, but I think that it started from that pretty shaky foundation, [which] lent itself to a lot of turmoil.”
Now, dating in Dallas again, Hall has returned to dating apps after more than six years away, much to his chagrin and disappointment. Politics and religion are important for him and shape most of his dating choices, but a problem emerging for him, and many Dallas daters, is the growing number of Republicans choosing non-descript labels on their profiles.
“What I deduce is that a lot of them are trying to be sneaky with that ‘non-political’ or ‘moderate' label," he says. "A Trojan horse for sure, for abysmal, virulent right-wing beliefs and views. Or just ‘I did vote for Trump, but it's just because of his economic values.’”
But purity culture isn’t just creating a more modest dating scene today, says Hall. It’s still pushing Dallas daters, who have always been raised to remain abstinent, into quick-paced relationships which are often propelled by dating apps.
“Expectations are set up [about] what you should want at certain points in your life,” said Hall. “[There’s still a pressure] instilled a long time ago. Because when you go up in a church, or you even just grow up in Texas, grow up in the Bible Belt, there's no escaping the ripples of it.”