DALLAS: Online dating company Match has formed a partnership with meditation app Calm on a campaign to encourage people to take care of their mental health.
The effort, unveiled on Tuesday as part of World Mental Health Day, will allow consumers to access five free Calm sessions about topics such as self-love, as well as discounts for the apps’ respective memberships.
“We obviously are focused on helping people meet one another, make meaningful connections, fall in love, go on dates and, for the past few years, we have really been focusing on enabling our users to get to know themselves better, so they can get to know one another better, and so Calm was a great partner for us,” said Jennifer Spector, Match VP of brand marketing.
As dating apps have multiplied, so have conversations about the toll that online dating and swiping can have on users’ mental health.
“When you are consistently disappointed by a space that was sold to you as a path to love over and over and over again — for many of us, for years at a time — you never really stop to ask yourself: ‘What is this doing to my mental health? What is this doing to my well-being?’” Shani Silver, a podcaster and the author of “A Single Revolution,” told The New York Times.
There was also an increase in anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study.
“The pandemic just had people really being able to sit still, and in stillness, they were really able to think about what they wanted for themselves and for their relationships,” said Spector. “So I think for Match, a brand like Calm is really helpful because it is allowing people to be still, to meditate and to think through ways to relax them and focus on themselves and we believe that investment will help you be a better dater.”
The brands are promoting the partnership on social media, and Match will advertise it on its apps.
This article originally appeared on prweek.com.
