AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Online dating has been around for decades. And some people just are not fans, so they're going back to the ancient technique of looking for potential partners in person. WPR's Anna Marie Yanny recently attended a singles mixer in Madison, Wisconsin, and has this report.
ANNA MARIE YANNY, BYLINE: It's just before 6 p.m., and 16 single people are arriving at a cocktail bar in Madison, Wisconsin. They range in age from their early 20s to early 40s, and there's no hiding behind a photo here. That's something 24-year-old Teagan Davis says definitely can happen with a dating app.
TEAGAN DAVIS: And it can be really hard, too, when you meet someone that isn't like their profile shows you, right? Because you're very much curating how you want to appear to the world.
YANNY: Davis is sitting with her friend, 26-year-old Ellie Braun. They're artists, educators. And a few months ago, they were talking about the movie "Ghost," which has this romantic scene where Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore spin a vase on a pottery wheel.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "UNCHAINED MELODY")
THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS: (Singing) Whoa, my love.
YANNY: Unlike the movie, this pottery event is G-rated, since the two friends decided to create a much tamer singles gathering where people meet each other while painting ceramic mugs.
ELLIE BRAUN: Teagan and I have both talked about, with our friends, how difficult, like, meeting people in person is and on, like, dating apps. So I think there's definitely, like, a desire for people to have these kinds of events where, like, you know going into it that if you talk to someone, they're going to be single, instead of, like, trying to put yourself out there at a bar where you don't know what someone's situation is.
DAVIS: We'll get started here in probably the next 5, 10 minutes.
YANNY: Twenty-six-year-old Starr Welk-Schwartz, rocking red hair and winged eyeliner, says she came to the event looking for a change.
STARR WELK-SCHWARTZ: Something like this, you know, you see people as people. You don't see them as something, like, on your screen.
YANNY: She says dating apps can feel almost inhumane. There's a lack of empathy. That's not the case here.
WELK-SCHWARTZ: There's, like, more of an intention here. It's like, you're actually trying to meet people.
YANNY: So she chats at a table with four others while she paints her cats on a mug. Across the room, 24-year-old Ben Goss is adding a cow to his mug. He says he just needs more experience.
BEN GOSS: I haven't really gone on many dates. I've gone on a date with a friend. That's it, basically.
YANNY: Goss says he's ultimately looking for a relationship but believes dating apps limit his chances.
GOSS: They're able to, through algorithms, choose who you see and who sees you.
YANNY: Dating apps do work for some people. But a 2023 Pew Research Center survey found a third of young adults said online dating made finding a long-term partner harder. Catalina Toma, a University of Wisconsin-Madison communication science professor, found people could be feeling fatigued from choice overload.
CATALINA TOMA: It creates a mentality that the right person or the ideal person is still out there, and I just need to search more.
YANNY: And at the pottery event, 42-year-old Aaron Rostad said he showed up because he's found in-person connections can't be replicated by using an app. Plus, he says, the pottery activity makes for a good conversation starter.
AARON ROSTAD: Having something to do with your hands or, like, talk about what you're doing as opposed to just being like, hey, do you come here often?
YANNY: At the end of the night, people were not rushing home together. But many say they'll be back for future mixers because they like the old-fashioned way of getting to know each other.
For NPR News, I'm Anna Marie Yanny in Madison, Wisconsin.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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