{
  "id": 13931958,
  "title": "We Need to Bring Back Matchmaking Our Friends",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/12/we-need-to-bring-back-matchmaking-our-friends",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-12T10:00:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Time",
    "slug": "time",
    "url": "https://time.com/article/2026/10/12/we-need-to-bring-back-matchmaking-our-friends/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Last year, writer Irina Zharkova began hosting monthly house parties. When she noticed two friends getting along well, she casually suggested they go on a date. To her surprise, they ended up dating. Zharkova believes that her impromptu matchmaking efforts might have a higher success rate than dating apps. One of the downsides of dating apps is the decline of matchmaking among friends. She thinks it's time to bring back these practices in our current state of isolation and polarization. Friends know intimate details about us that dating apps cannot capture, such as personality traits, quirks, and compatibility. A friend can provide honest feedback that an algorithm cannot, helping us make more informed decisions about potential partners. Dating apps make meeting someone feel detached from our existing social circles, as we swipe through strangers based on limited information. However, friends can introduce us to people who share our values and interests because they know us well. Hosting house parties and casual gatherings with friends can create a low-pressure environment for organic connections to form without the pressure of online dating. Zharkova's own experience supports this idea; her friend found true love through her matchmaking efforts, despite initially seeming incompatible. Bringing back matchmaking among friends could provide an antidote to the impersonal nature of app dating and help us rediscover the power of social connections in finding love.",
  "summary": "When we erase community and friendships from the dating experience, dating becomes strategic in the most unpleasant of ways, writes Meehika Barua.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}