Understanding the Concept of 'Digital Body Language'

Is There Such a Thing as 'Digital Body Language' in Online Dating? Hinge Thinks So

February 8, 2024

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The Story

One of the biggest dating apps in the game right now, Hinge, has just dropped a new online dating concept that might actually be worth paying attention to: “digital body language.”

Coined as part of Hinge’s recent “Gen Z Date Report,” digital body language, or DBL, is a way to describe the things people communicate in an online dating concept without using their words — just like how body language works in real-life interactions to communicate things like mood and interest level.

The Snapshot

As the Gen Z Dating Report states, digital body language is “all about non-verbal subtext. It’s emojis, punctuation, message length, and response time. It’s all those subtle cues that suggest a dater is into someone — or not.”

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As the above statistic implies, the context of your messages can seriously impact how someone feels about them. The report further breaks down some of the things that go into creating your DBL:

The Lesson

Are all of these factors important? Not necessarily — and of course, it’ll vary by person. A small percentage of people, the Hinge report notes, will get “the ick” when someone double-texts. But more often, they’ll be appreciative that you’re showing interest in a genuine way.

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The main takeaway here may be to remember that how you act will impact how people see you — even if they can’t actually see you. So if you know you’re often slow with response times, or eager to double-text, or not yet comfortable using emojis in your messages, these are things you could address in your profile. Done in a funny way, they’ll help contextualize your messages so your matches don’t get the wrong idea.

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