Late one night in Ho Chi Minh City, 27-year-old Nam lay awake swiping through dating profiles. Nam installed the app after a breakup three years ago, hoping for someone to chat with. At one point he was chatting with ten women every evening, sending them all the same copied greeting. He says the rushed encounters left him hollow, and over time his feelings went numb.
Across town, 24-year-old Thuy Linh faced a different problem. Online she built the image of a quick, clever talker, collecting dozens of matches a week. But on her first real date, without a text box to hide behind, she froze and answered in single words. Since then she has blocked, or simply vanished on, anyone who suggests meeting in person. Their stories reflect a wider pattern among urban young people after more than a decade of dating apps. Yet a 2025 survey by Forbes Health found that 78 percent of American users felt dating app fatigue, rising to 79 percent among Gen Z.