Over the last ten years, there has been a radical shift in the way that we find love, largely due to the dating app explosion of the last decade. The 2010s saw the rise of mainstream dating platforms, evolving from early form websites such as eharmony – largely marketed to older users and for many rooted in a stigma of desperation – to swipe based apps marketed at the younger generation, lending themselves the idea that romantic options are always available and never-ending. Tinder was the pioneer of the dating apps, and now boasts over 65 billion matches worldwide. But how do people really feel about the always available stream of potential dates? Though the stigma around online dating has disappeared, the attitudes people carry around love and dating have vastly changed from our parents’ generation. New landmark research from StoryTerrace, the nation’s leading life story curators, has found that many are now craving the romance of the older generations as 17% of people are jealous of their parents’ generation and their relationships.

Though 270 million people worldwide use dating apps – a figure that’s doubled just within the last five years – a report form Pew Research has found that 35% of current or recent app users have said that the last year of online dating has made them feel pessimistic about finding love. StoryTerrace has had the privilege of gaining insight into some of the most romantic love stories, by helping couples from 30 to 80-years-old find the words to convey their experiences. In their nationally representative research, the memoir-writing service has examined a nation unified by love as over half of Brits claim to believe in ‘the one’. A heart-warming 25% also feel that their love story could be translated into a book or a film, demonstrating the power of their love, and how they feel this could impact or inspire others.

Arguably, people miss traditional expressions of love, and putting pen to paper is the most timeless way to express one’s affection. Thinking back to how our grandparents and great grandparents stayed connected, the only form of communication was via letters. StoryTerrace’s research shows that 47% of Brits agree that the generation preceding them had far more romantic love stories than their own, showing a real desire amongst the nation for the timeless gestures of love used by past generations. This has also been reflected in the growing number of people having their love stories penned in an in-depth memoir with StoryTerrace.

Audrey Ryan enlisted the help of the memoir-writing service to have her parents’ memoir written – they were an interracial couple who fell in love in 1970s Birmingham: “Mum and dad didn’t always have it easy – far from it – but their relationship was a sort of fairytale. They stuck together in the face of racial prejudice, and I don’t think I ever heard them raise their voices to one another. Even when they were old and grey, the love between them never dwindled. Thats what this story is all about: two lives, well lived, even when the odds were stacked against them.”

Audrey decided to document her parents’ love story in honour of her mother’s wish to one day write the story of her life: “My late mother Joyce was a great storyteller plus she loved to sing. Mum always used to sing us the song “One day I’m going to write the story of my life”. Mum never got around to writing up her stories up then sadly passed away in 2015. I promised myself (and mum) that I would do it so that we wouldn’t risk losing her story forever.”

Rutger Bruining, CEO of leading biography-writing service, StoryTerrace, discusses why love and relationships are some of the most powerful themes in literature:

“Across the world we have a deep affinity with love stories, and I think that’s because they’re so relatable for all of us. What has been particularly heart-warming to see is the growing number of people and couples that have come to us to document their own stories of love in memoir form and therefore preserving them so that they can be passed down to future generations.

“It’s not often we get to focus on purely happy times given the current societal pressures everyone is facing, so I think it’s really important to celebrate the love stories of others this wedding season, and also find inspiration in the fact that love often prevails in the face of adversity.”