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‘Summer of love’: Forget the dating app stigma, 2 out of 3 say you can fall in love before meeting

Bumble says that 91% of those surveyed believe that there is no longer a stigma attached to online dating compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. (Shutterstock)
It's officially dating season if you haven't heard, and that doesn't mean you have to ditch your dating apps.
Two out of three people say they believe you can fall in love before meeting in person, according to a new survey released by Bumble. Bumble, the locally founded online dating app that allows women to make the first move, says its newly released survey "reveals how the pandemic has changed dating" headed into the "summer of love."
As COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease in parts of the country and around the Lone Star State, the company says that 91% of those surveyed believe that there is no longer a stigma attached to online dating compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. And more than two-thirds think it's possible to fall in love with someone that they've never met in person before.
Bumble users have also adapted to coronavirus-related restrictions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey says.
Clare O'Connor, head of content at Bumble, said that 1 in 3 users said that they liked virtual dates because it saves them time and money and 1 in 4 users surveyed said they liked that they only have to get partially ready when going on a video date.
For those wanting to play it safe heading out the door, O'Connor said that soon, users will be able to add a badge to their Bumble profile that says "vaccinated."
So what should you do if trying to get back in the dating scene?
O'Connor's advice is to "seasonalize" your Bumble profile by updating your photos to show your personality.
Let's get dating!
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Popular
A $6,000 cockatoo named Lemon Grab was stolen from a pet store Sunday afternoon, owner Kelsey Fernandez said. (Kelsey Fernandez)
A big-money bird has been stolen from a northwest Austin pet store.
Kelsey Fernandez, the owner of a $6,000 sulphur and citron-crested cockatoo named Lemon Grab, said the emotional support animal was taken from the Gallery of Pets store, around closing time on Sunday.
"I've struggled with mental illness my entire life, and ever since I got him I've been doing so much better," Fernandez told Austonia.
The $6k cockatoo is young and will starve unless he is fed by hand, Fernandez said.
In a surveillance video, a man appears to have something under his shirt as he and two others exit the business around the same time the store believes that Lemon Grab was stolen.
Fernandez said a report has been filed with the Austin Police Department with an $1,000 reward for his return.
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(Pexels)
Introverts and personal space lovers may not want to make the move to Austin anytime soon: The Texas capital saw a bigger increase in one-bedroom rent prices than almost any other U.S. city in April, according to a Rent.com report.
Austin's one-bedroom rent has more than doubled—a 112% increase—from April 2021 to 2022, the report said. Only Oklahoma City saw a higher year-over-year increase with a 133% jump.
Austin also had the fourth-highest increase in two-bedroom rent, with a 50% increase in the past year. The city joined a nationwide trend where rents were up 8.3% year-over-year across the U.S, a trend exacerbated by a 6.2% increase in inflation in the same time period.
But "not everyone is experiencing inflation the same way," Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Taylor Marr said in the report, and a brunt of the load has gone to cities with more move-ins. While over 90% of state rental markets increased in the last year, that jump was seen most in Sun Belt states, including Texas, Arizona and Florida.
Even with breakneck increases in rent, however, Austin's rent prices still haven't cracked the top 10: the city's one-bedroom apartments are the 12th most expensive in the nation with an average price of $2,918. Meanwhile, its two-bedrooms fall behind Texas cities Frisco, Dallas and Plano and come out 34th on the list with a $2,302 average monthly rent.
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