BBC 6分钟英语学习 约会应用程序有效吗？

From BBC, learning English. Hello, and welcome to Six Minute English.

I'm Neil,

and I'm Dan. Now, then Dan, what do you think of the dating apps, you know, apps on your phone that help you find a romantic partner?

I can't say I've ever used them myself.

How about you? Neither have I, but I've got friends who have very successfully lots of weddings.

Oh, great. Now, research shows that fewer than 5% of people who have used dating apps actually go out on a date with someone they've met through them.

We'll find out the reasons for this shortly.

But 1st a question Even though dating apps are not used as much as we might think, they are still big business.

But do you know how big around the world last year, how much was spent on them?

Was it a less than half a billion dollars?

B between half a billion and a billion dollars, or C over a billion dollars?

Any ideas? Dan Well, this is purely a guess, but let's say over a billion dollars.

Well, we'll have the answer at the end of the program.

Elizabeth Tinamans is a researcher who studied the use of a particular dating app.

She spoke on the bbc's You and Yours radio program.

On radio, her study confirms that comparatively few people who used the app used it to arrange to meet up with someone.

She talks about the people's motives for using the app.

Motives is a word which means reasons.

So what were those motives? We found from all the people that we surveyed that are only slightly more than half of them actually met up with someone.

So it doesn t look like a lot of people are using it to meet up, but it makes sense, because we are also looked at why they were using dating, and the most popular and most common motives were using it out of curiosity and using it to pass time or entertainment.

So they're not actively using these dating apps to meet people, like swiping with friends is something that happens fairly often, especially among millennials.

Tinamans said that people use the app to pass the time and simply for entertainment.

What other motives did she mention?

Dan? Well, she said that people used it out of curiosity.

If you do something out of curiosity, you're just interested in seeing what it is and what it does.

Maybe you've heard about something, and although you don't want to actually try it, you do want to see what it's all about.

E.g., when I was travelling, once out of curiosity, I went to see people bungee jumping, but it was never something I was going to do myself.

Was the lack of actual dating through the dating app?

Surprise? No. She said that because they looked at the motives, the result makes sense.

When something makes sense, it's understandable.

It's not surprising. There is another view as to why people are not using dating apps for actual dating.

This is Zoe Strmple, who is a dating historian.

She argues that because there is so much choice and so many opportunities to find a partner through an app, it can make the dating process unpleasant and people get tired of it.

People are being horribly disillusioned. I think people have also started to feel jaded.

People are feeling that they are aware that these relationships are often very callous, and that's to do with this sort of incredible sense of choice.

She says, the people feel disillusioned and jaded.

What does she mean when you're disillusioned?

It means you're unhappy with and disappointed by something because it isn't as good as it used to be, or it's not as good as you thought it was going to be.

If you have many experiences like that, you become jaded, which means you become bored and lose interest in something.

She also commented that the dating experience can be callous.

This means that emotionally, it can be very tough, and you have to be ready to accept rejection or to reject people yourself.

And this is not always done in the kindest way.

Here's very strmple again. People are being horribly disillusioned.

I think people have also started to feel jaded.

People are feeling that they are aware that these relationships are often very callous, and that's to do with this sort of incredible sense of choice.

OK, time to review today's vocabulary.

But 1st, let's have the answer to that quiz question I asked How much was spent on dating apps last year?

Was it a less than half a billion dollars?

B between half a billion and a billion dollars, or see over a billion dollars?

Dan, you said, I said C over a billion dollars?

Well, the total was just under $600 million, so the correct answer was b between half a billion and billion dollars.

Good guess if you got that one right?

Right now, it's time to recap today's vocabulary.

Our 1st word was motives. A motive is your reason for doing something.

If something makes sense, it's not a

surprise and you can understand it.

The next phrase was out of curiosity.

This is when you do something for no particular reason other than you are interested in seeing it or trying it.

Then we had disillusioned. This is a feeling you get when something isn't as good as it used to be, or as good as you expected it to be, and you become disappointed by it.

And that can lead to your being jaded, which is a feeling of dissatisfaction and boredom with something that's been going on for a while.

And finally, there was callous an adjective, which means uncaring and cold.

Well, I hope you aren't disillusioned with six minute English and will join us again next time.

In the meantime, find BBC learning English dot com, online and on social media and on our own app.

And before you ask, it's not a dating app.

Bye for now. Bye, bye.

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