It’s a love story, baby, just say...yea, no.

I hate the way you haunt Gen Z, and the way you cause dispair. I hate the way you ditched the bar. I hate it when you swear. I hate your emailed dating pursuits and the way you're never kind. I hate you so much it makes me sick; it even makes me rhyme.

I hate it, I hate the way you bite at night. I hate it when you lie. I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you get me high. I hate it when you're not around, and the fact that you never call.

But mostly, I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close—well, maybe a little bit when you claim to be 6-feet tall.

"I recently reconnected on Tinder with a guy I had worked with when I was a teenager. We both agreed to be intentional towards a serious relationship and take things slow. He insisted on kissing me in the photobooth strip for our first and second dates. Okay, it's just a kiss. He would bring me food, and pay for things, and pick me up to take me where I needed to go (I didn't have a car for a bit). He called me after a couple weeks and said he wanted to take a step back and just take me on dates rather than spend so much time together as we had been. I agreed. After that, it was impossible to get a text back from him. After another 2-3 weeks, I finally got a hold of him and asked if we were no longer on the same page, and he basically said, yes he didn't want to date me anymore because he was enjoying being single too much. Okay, fine, we can be friends. Well, he wouldn't make plans to be friends either, but we did meet up the other day, where he held my hand, and I asked why he would friend-zone me if he still liked me like that. 'I'm sorry I'm scared of committment :(' Like, okay bro haha. I think that's what dating GenZ men boils down to these days."

"Guy on Hinge asked me out, and we go get coffee. The second I get there I’m doing the heavy lifting with the conversation which is surprising since he had good chat over Hinge texts. Within the first ten minutes he tells me I could be an A-list celebrity’s cousin, which, okay, not sure how to respond to that entirely, but the rest of the date went okay as he did open up a little more as it went on. Afterwards he gave me his number and I texted him, and he responded with an AI image of my body and that A-list celebrity’s head, which weirded me the fuck out. So now you fed my image and likeness to an AI that now owns my face and body and can do whatever with it, dude?? Not to mention what he could do with it…there was no second date."

"I’ve dated two Z’s in the last five months. One was a rebound, set up by a friend, saying that I needed it. She was a headache, but it was appreciated. The other bit me in the face while I slept."

"I tried dating apps when I was 18-21. It was a mess. It was mostly people looking for hookups. Which is fine, but not what I was looking for. Plus, I got a lot of shit for being a trans guy. Now at 27, I’m not seeking out a relationship at all. I’m happy being single. If I happen to meet someone organically by chance, that’s great. But I’m not trying to find anyone on apps or by going out. Not knocking that at all. It’s just not for me. I just don’t understand why some feel like they NEED to be in a relationship to be a happy adult. I’d love a healthy relationship one day, but I’m in no hurry. ☺️"

"Was trying to plan a date with a guy on Tinder, and I suggested drinks (not dinner) at a restaurant with a nice view. He agreed but bailed about 3-4 hours before the date because he didn’t have any money in his account for dinner. He asked me, 'Would you want to smoke on the beach instead?' Like, no dude, I don’t want to smoke on the beach with a stranger as a first date because you’re broke."

"I met this guy at my district’s Varsity Choir Concert, so it was my school and then his combined. He thought I was cute and caught a glimpse of my name badge and proceeded to email my SCHOOL EMAIL and he said (no joke) 'what’s cooking, good looking?' ON THE SCHOOL EMAIL with his phone number attached. I ignored it for a few days because I didn’t know who it was, then out of pure boredom I texted the number. He responded almost immediately with 'no way you responded 🥹' and everything was casual for a moment. Aside from the cringe first interaction he was actually a pretty good guy (or so I thought) and we started talking more and more. Eventually we reached the dating stage and about 2 months into the relationship, he posts on his story a pic of him and a girl who I didn’t recognize and the caption says 'me & gf' 😭 I text him and I’m like 'dude who is this girl on your story' and apparently he “forgot to tell me” that he had a girlfriend?? Like hello??? Anyways, I’m all freaking out because I genuinely like this dude, and apparently he has a chick and was just messing with me for 4 MONTHS!"

"I was on a date by myself (self-care) at a nice restaurant and the busser asked me out. I said yes, and we started hanging out. He never made a move after that. I figured okay, maybe he just wants a friend, I can do that. I couldn't do it. Being his friend meant being his therapist and listening to him rant about how his family and friends don't like him and don't care about him. It was like hanging out with Eeyore. It was a huge bummer and every time I tried to be kind, he would hit me with the 'no one cares about me.' I didn't know him well enough to deal with that."

"I’m not on the apps and still try to meet people the old-fashioned way. I think that because it’s become less common to approach people in person, it’s often taken as a sign of extreme forwardness. So if I talk to a guy at a bar or party or whatever, more often than not, they expect that I want to have sex right away. And I mean IMMEDIATELY, like 'let’s go at it in the bathroom' kinda thing. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with spontaneous fun, but it’s not really what I’m looking for."

"I got off work early and texted this guy from Tinder if he wanted to get takeout with me. It was late and dark and I pulled up to his house and he asked if I just wanted to eat inside since it was too dark to enjoy outside. I said sure. At his apartment, I lay out all the food and dig in since I was starving after work. He didn’t touch any of it. I told him to help himself, but he said he was on a strict diet. In my head I was like why would you agree to eat with me and then just watch me eat?? After he asked if I wanted to watch TV and I said okay. He immediately pulls up gamer YouTube, like videos of dudes streaming video games. Not TV, and not my cup of tea at all. During one of the videos he interrupts me mid-sentence by grabbing my shoulder and pulling me towards him to cuddle. I don’t appreciate being grabbed by a virtual stranger without asking, so I left pretty quickly after that."

I met a guy I was talking to at a bar with a dance floor. We were dancing, and we kiss and the inside of my lips started stinging. I asked him, “Are you on something?” and he responded, “Yeah, Cocaine! :)” like thanks for microdosing me, dude.

"I was seeing this guy for about five months. He was a little wishy-washy, and I had already given him the opportunity to end it if he wasn’t feeling it. He assured me this wasn’t the case and that he could see potential for us dating long-term. I had to move apartments, and I needed help moving just two heavy boxes. He picked up the phone immediately, agreed to help me asap, and told me not to touch anything; he would handle it. He did, and we hung out for a bit and then hooked up. After that, we were in pretty steady contact over text for a week, and I responded to him about three days late since I had been visiting family, and I never heard from him again. He completely ghosted me. I recently reached out (after 18 months) to ask what happened, and received no response."

"I dated this guy from the East Coast for about a month. He had to move back home, but we still kept in touch every so often. I tolerated it, but he would only call me at 2–3 a.m. his time and ask me inappropriate things about my dating life, like 'Who’s bigger, the guy you’re dating (casually) now or me? Who’s better in bed, etc.' In the last phone call, he used the R-slur and asked if I liked that word. Like, no dude. And proceeded to tell me how [R-slur] is such a good word, if he had to rank all the words, it would probably be at the top. I tried changing the subject, and he brought it back to the topic of how [R-slur] is the best word in the English language. I basically told him to never talk to me again"

"I was on a Hinge coffee date with a guy when he asked if I would go into a shop with him. I did and I thought the guy working at the shop was the hottest man I’d seen in my life. I felt it was uncouth to flirt with the shop guy while on a first date with another guy, so I returned to the shop one week later. Cute shop boy was there, but I lost my nerve to ask him out at the last minute. I proceeded to return to the shop over the next three days, until I finally asked him out. It was so nerve-wracking but he said yes! We recently went out and had a blast. To the GenZ men and woman out there, I encourage you to put yourself out there!! Meeting that guy on Hinge was NOTHING compared to the feeling of having chemistry meeting someone in person and having to put myself out there to get with them. It’s so worth it, just be respectful and be yourself."