Jessie Gurunathan: Pear emoji taking over the dating world

By wearing a Pear Ring users have the opportunity to have real-life chance encounters with other singles looking to connect.

Speaking in emoji has become something of a modern-day shorthand, with many emoji symbols having a double entendre. There’s the obvious literal meaning, but for many of us, especially those born post-1997, it’s very normal when we speak to our peers to use emoji symbols with a secondary meaning. In fact, only 7 per cent of smartphone users apparently use symbols like the eggplant emoji to represent the actual vegetable - if you’re not following, I’ll leave it to your imagination to decipher what that one represents.

There’s a hot new emoji popping up all over the social media stratosphere that’s threatening to turn the modern dating world on its head, and I love it.

In what’s been self-styled as “The Biggest Social Experiment”, the humble pear emoji is being featured in social media bios all over the world. The recent viral phenomenon is in fact a new way people are subtly choosing to let their followers know that they’re single and open to connecting and meeting with other singles.

The dating world has always been a bit of a minefield to navigate and with the arrival of smartphones, many claim that dating apps like Tinder, Hinge and Bumble have single-handedly ruined modern-day dating and romance. I was officially off the market just before people began playing the swipe game that Tinder first introduced, and to be honest, I’m sort of glad I missed it. I have always found the idea of swiping left or right based on someone’s physical appearance to be rather brutal and shallow. Call me old-fashioned, but how someone looks in a few profile pictures has absolutely nothing to do with all the key ingredients that make up a good recipe for romance and meaningful connection.

These dating apps lured users in with the promise of compatibility algorithms that would assist in finding their perfect match. More often than not, though, my single friends suddenly seemed to have a lot more dating disaster stories thanks to apps like Tinder. I learned about catfishing, where oftentimes, the photos used on a person’s dating profile were in fact an absolutely false representation of said person in real life.

One friend even suggested the pictures of her date were perhaps taken of him 20 years prior. It’s funny until it’s not, and I can absolutely understand why there’s an increasing sentiment among a generation of dating app users that feel jaded and fed up with swipe culture.

That’s why I think this new viral pear trend is kind of genius. As I delved a little deeper, I discovered that it was conceived by a dating concept and brand known as, you guessed it, Pear. The Pear Ring scheme sees singletons from all over the world sign up and make a one-off $40 payment to be part of an exclusive singles social experiment. Once a member, you receive a teal silicone ring that you’re encouraged to wear all the time, on any chosen finger. This is to encourage a shift away from seemingly outdated, overpriced dating app subscription fees and allow users the opportunity to have real-life chance encounters with other singles looking to connect. Since its recent launch into countries like the US, UK, Germany, Australia and Canada, the first release of rings sold out almost immediately.

According to the website, you’ll be issued a unique membership number, and you’ll be invited to “PearFest” as well as gaining “access to exclusive free events in your city”.

Pear’s aim is to eclipse and replace mainstream dating apps and reframe the way singles approach dating. “Millions of singles will be wearing this ring….. Hinge, Bumble, Tinder. Pear will take it from here.” I like their brazen confidence, but this isn’t a revolutionary new concept or approach to dating, in fact, for centuries people have adopted various techniques and tools to signal their social and marital status to one another.

With the ongoing debate around technological advancements contributing to the desensitization of modern society, I find it rather charming and hopeful that something so anachronistic as a good old-fashioned “meet-cute” is what people seem to crave and are returning to.