If you thought we’re talking about bedsheets, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Modern dating now calls for you to make Excel sheets and PowerPoint presentations to keep up with dates. What, you say? Don’t fret, we will explain
For Sufiyan Junaid, PPTs are a way of documenting love. PIC/SATEJ SHINDE
Sufiyan Junaid (@sufiyanjunaid) grew up watching Bollywood films. At 27, he knew the way to a girl’s heart is a big romantic gesture. When he found himself falling for a girl, he wanted to perform a big gesture. But not every man is Shah Rukh Khan. So, he did the next best thing — he asked her out with a PowerPoint presentation. A painstakingly detailed collection of slides synced to Bruno Mars and ROSÉ superhit: APT. It was funny, romantic, charming — a full Romeo move. But alas, not enough to get him his Juliet.
“So I decided to use it for content,” he laughs. Junaid, who has 51,000 Instagram followers, turned heartbreak into virality. The PPT reel is among his most popular, with close to 10 lakh views. He isn’t alone in making PPTs for love. Over the last year, Instagram has been flooded with creators making “Dating Wrappeds”. One user went as far as making Excel sheets to analyse all the dates she has gone on in the last year. She highlighted traits she liked, crunched the numbers to find a perfect match. Even the film Materialists — love it or hate it — got one thing right: modern dating is just a checklist to cross: tall, funny, 0 Instagram posts, dog person, cat person, good cook, and the list never ends. Swipes, red flags, green flags, compatibility charts — it can feel less like falling in love and more like running an algorithm.
Sanchita Garg made a Dating Wrapped just for fun, and says her friends loved it
It should come to no one’s surprise that Gen Z is now making PPTs and Excel sheets to date. For Sanchita Garg, 23, it was something she did for fun. She is a self-described “friendly neighbourhood gym girl” and runs a page on Instagram that goes: @feral.gym.rat. “2024 was a big dating year for me. I was going all out,” she laughs, “It’s hard to keep track of things when you’re going on so many dates.” Garg got into the habit of making little notes on her phone every time she went on a date, just things to remember the guys by. “I didn’t even know if I would ever see them again. Are you my soulmate or is this a one and done?”
Collecting all these notes on her dates, Garg realised she had enough material for a “wrapped”, a year-end presentation to wrap up her dating life, similar to a Spotify Wrapped. “There are stats involved here: this is how I would rank the date, this is how many guys I matched with, this is how many I spoke to, this is how many turned into a date, so on and so forth,” she explains, “I knew it would be really funny to put into a PPT and my friends loved it!”
Vyoma Sharma started a PPT pitching event because she was frustrated by dating apps. PIC/INSTAGRAM@VYOMASHARMA
Before you go judging her, many of us forget that the key to a Gen Z’s heart is irony. PPTs and Excel sheets are boring? Well, we’ve found a way to make them fun. Plus, once you’re in on the joke of having a horrible dating life, others can’t make fun of you for it. “If you told someone 20 years ago that kids today are making PPTs out of dates, they’d probably be like, ‘What the hell?!’”, says Garg, “But dating really is that hard today. So it’s easier to make a joke out of it.”
Whether we want to admit it or not, watching a Dating Wrapped can be quite entertaining and it does great numbers on social media too. The shock value of such a concept cannot be denied. It does intrigue one. Perhaps PPTs are a joke for some but 28-year-old Vyoma Sharma has found a way to monetise it. If you’re tired of making PPTs for work and wish it was for something fun, look no further than the event she is organising, “Big Deck Energy”. A singles mixer happening in Delhi on the September 18, where you get to make a PPT to “pitch” yourself to potential partners.
Sharma rather candidly shared her inspiration was a similar event she saw happening in New York, USA. She runs an Instagram account (@unhingedindianboyz) where she often exposes creepy behaviour she experienced on dating apps. This led to her getting banned on most dating apps. Necessity isn’t the mother of invention for nothing, and so she started her PPT quest.
Kautuk Shrivastava and Naina Hiranandani
“I’ve been single for two-and-a-half years. Dating apps just didn’t work for me. It has become so gamified. The swiping is kind of dehumanising. And people don’t even put effort into their profiles,” she says, “With this kind of thing, people tend to put effort into their presentations, it’s a great way to get to know someone’s personality, how they can be funny, what jokes they make. It’s like an elevator pitch, right? Plus, it cuts through all unnecessary small talk.”
Culture commentator and host of podcast “The Internet Said So”, Kautuk Shrivastava theorises that a move towards individualism is behind the advent of this mathematical dating. His reel on the subject is what initially sparked Internet discourse on the subject. “Indian society was always a society of collectives. Now we’re growing individualistic. This change is also mirrored in technology. For example: Many of us have grown up with one TV in the household, where everyone watched the same programme together. Now everyone has their own phones, and there’s barely any overlap in what we see. What you are watching is very different even from your siblings.”
Hyper-personalisation of our feeds, feeds into the false expectation of everything being tailored to you. “Some people have a list of specific things that they want in a partner, and thanks to dating apps providing an infinite supply of people, it is possible to keep searching for a person who meets all their criteria.” But infinite supply also leads to infinite disappointment. “Your dating history also plays a part. If partners have let you down in the past, you tend to put your guard up. You don’t want to get into something serious unless you are sure. And that’s why you’re overanalysing, making Excel sheets, and trying to figure out: Who is the right person who won’t hurt me?”
Society in itself has become so numbers based. From cab rides to food delivery to online shopping, everyday interactions are enveloped in reviews and star ratings. “There’s a broader conversation to be had here about becoming a review-based society. Every single decision you make, you’re doing it looking at a review. When you’re constantly evaluating information and analysing data, maybe some of that seeps into dating.”
If the world really can be cracked with numbers, is there a formula to love? OG matchmaker and co-founder of SirfCoffee, a professional matchmaking service, Naina Hiranandani confirms that no such thing exists. Of course some basic demographic data should match: age, location, occupation, and such. But beyond that, Hiranandani believes the true markers of compatibility are shared values: “Your approach to your family, to your career, to personal finances, and even to sex and relationships. People are more than a LinkedIn profile — you can’t simply know them from their on-paper traits or achievements.”
Clients do come in with a list of things they want in a partner, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Of course it’s important to know what you want. What Hiranandani wants you to remember is, “If you meet someone where seven out of 10 boxes are ticked, the other three cease to matter in the bigger picture. If there’s fantastic chemistry and genuine compatibility, you can still build a strong, lasting relationship. But if you keep waiting for all 10, you’ll end up chasing a unicorn.”
Curious after watching Materialists, this writer does wonder if “unicorns” exist. In the film, unicorns are described as a rare species which are perfect in all respects, making them the ultimate catch. Hiranandani laughs at our question, “They label start-ups as unicorns too right?” In the business world, a unicorn is a privately owned start-up that reaches $1 billion (approximately R8300 crore) in valuation. “Companies celebrated for sky-high valuations, massive funding rounds, crazy revenues. And yet, more often than not, a few years later, you hear they’ve shut down.” she says, ironically comparing dating to another numbers game. Seems like we just can’t help it.
Not all hope is lost though. Yes, dating is harder than ever but that won’t stop Gen Z from finding unique solutions. Pessimists may look at “data-ing” as near dystopian, but Junaid insists that it’s a sweet gesture. “I think documentation of any form is the sweetest thing you can do for someone. It shows that you notice the little things, it makes the mundane more beautiful. So if I make an Excel sheet of all my favourite things about her, I think it’s sweet. And it’s not just that, I can make videos, films, PPTs, whatever tells the other person I care.”
Junaid is a reformed “player” himself and it would be a compliment to him to become a “loverboy” now. “I’m not proud of the boy I was when I was a commitment-phobe, so I’m trying to be a loverboy now. The PPTs are my love language, it’s how I show I care.” The sweetest anecdote Junaid shares is when he played Cupid himself. On the request of a follower, he made a PPT for a guy to ask out a girl. “I made sure it was serious, not just some random hook-up, and it worked. The girl said yes and now they are together. He showed me how the girl reacted and she said, ‘It’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.’”
Junaid is aware of the dating environment though. “Everyone is so calculative these days and there is a bit of facade. I don’t blame anyone though. We all want to be loved and we become versions of ourselves that we are not in that pursuit. That is why we have come up with terms like ‘performative male behaviour’ or a ‘pick-me girl’. But what works in the end is just pure connection. Love is hard. It requires compromises and sacrifices. Even if PPTs are just optics, it’s still a start.” In the end, maybe we can all agree that we would much rather have someone make us a PPT than make us suffer with their nonchalance.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
