Inside the challenge of Austin’s dating scene: It’s not you, it’s everyone

Austin’s disappointing dating scene seems to be an ongoing joke on social media.

Countless videos of users sharing their disastrous dating experiences have been posted on TikTok in the past three months alone.

The city is partly known for its indie, eccentric, and fragmentedly spread wealthy population. It attracts a mix of people with its scenic trails, music festivals, and tech startups, so what’s going on? Is Austin cursed? Is it the same in other Texas cities?

A video circulated on social media of someone claiming Austin as one of the “Top five worst cities for dating entering 2024.” Newly moved-in Austin resident Julia Mazur vowed to make it her life’s mission to change that narrative around the city’s dating scene. She recently moved to Austin after 10 years of living in Los Angeles.

“I am about to plan an event that is going to take Austin off of this list,” she said in a stitch response to the original video. “And I believe in myself to do it because I worked at Tinder for six years, I have a dating and relationships podcast called ‘Pretty Much Done’; I know a thing or two about dating.”

However, the task hasn’t been without its challenges, as Mazur shared in a video last month that the city didn’t meet her expectations.

“I was incredibly hopeful,” Mazur said in the video. “I was like, ‘I’m moving to the South, the guys are going to be so great.’ But what happened is that I was humbled extremely quickly.”

It led Mazur to understand that it wasn’t Austin–specifically that was the issue.

“I realized that dating is just bad in every city,” Mazur said in the video.

Whether that’s because of increased social media use, a yearslong pandemic, or the price of dating thanks to inflation, no one knows for sure. But she’s not alone in her thinking.

Data from Pew Research Center cites that even before the pandemic, “nearly half of U.S. adults — and a majority of women — say that dating has become harder in the last 10 years.” Then, in another study conducted by them two years later, 32% of U.S. adults said they found dating got even harder during the pandemic.

To ease the challenge of modern dating in her corner of the country, Mazur has begun hosting an event called Hot Takes Hot Dates in Austin with Joel Monteleone, a tech life coach.

The event launched in mid-August and is meant to “prove that our differences can actually bring us together.”

“It’s not like a cheesy speed dating event. We talk about our dating icks, we debate hot takes; it’s a group event. It’s super fun, it’s super low pressure,” Mazur said in a video.

This week, residents have a chance to come to their own conclusions on whether there’s hope for Austin’s dating scene.

The next event is on Sept. 27 at the Wiggle Room, located at 612 Nueces St. Tickets are available at https://tickets.vulcanpresents.com/e/hot-takes-hot-dates-2.