Changing demographics?

What does falling in love mean in 2019? For many, it apparently means heading to an app and hoping to find true love with a swipe or a click; and this is even if there are concerns that online dating may not lead to true love and everyone is in danger of losing it.

Comparethemarket.com surveyed over 2,000 adults to see if love really is on the line or if online dating is simply the newest way to find true love.

The survey found 25-34-year-olds to be the most optimistic about falling in love online, with 34% responding “Yes, definitely” to the question “Do you think it’s possible to fall in love through an online dating site/app?”.

Comparatively, only 30% of 16-24-year-olds, 26% of 35-44-year-olds, 18% of 45-54-year-olds and 15% of the over 55 agreed with the statement.

People who use dating apps tied to shared interests, such as music, are the most likely to believe you can definitely fall in love online, with 69% answering the same question with “Yes, definitely”. The next most optimistic app users were: dating services based on religion (65%), Meetic (68%), SpeedDate.com (64%), OkCupid (59%) and Grindr (56.5%).

With dating apps having more and more game-like features, Comparethemarket.com wanted to find out people’s opinions on how this affects the way they approach dating through apps. The survey discovered that only 7% of people say they often treat dating apps like a game and use strategies to ‘win’.

The question of who treats dating apps like more of a game out of men and women gets slightly different responses depending if you ask men or women! However, they both agree that men are more likely to treat dating apps like a game, with 25% of women and 14% of men agreeing with this statement. Only 8% of men and 6% of women believe women are the most likely to treat online dating as a game.

It isn’t all roses, however, as there are also bad experiences from online dating. Almost three in five (59%) people say they’ve had a bad experience of online dating, this could be either while talking to someone on the app/website itself or when meeting them in real life. This breaks down as 56% of men and 61% of women.

Per app, the bad experiences are also different.

People who said they used Meetic (95%) most claimed to have had bad experiences either talking with, or meeting, people from the app, followed by Ashley Madison (91%), dating services based on religion (89%), SpeedDate.com (87%) and dating services based on interest (86%).

Meanwhile, 59% of people who said they used Tinder most claimed to have had bad experiences either talking with, or meeting, people from the app, the fewest out of the sites studied, followed by Match.com (62%), PlentyOfFish (64%), and Bumble (68%)

The most common bad experience with online dating is a boring first date, with 31% of people claiming to have experienced this. 21% of people have had to run away as the date was so bad,  17% felt that their date clearly fancied someone else. For 17% of respondents, the date ended when the person didn’t turn up or left early, and for 13% it was the classic ‘I spilled wine on my date’.

Men are more likely to be stood up than women for a date made through online platforms with 20% claiming their date didn’t turn up or left early, compared to women’s 14%. Men are also a lot more likely to cause a short date with 17% admitting to spilling wine on their date compared to 10% of women.

From bad pick up lines to fake profiles, this is what people consider to be the worst thing about online and app-based dating.

And with apps now generally accepted as sources of lifelong relationships, more are emerging to respond to niche markets. These include: Hater (which has over 1,000,000 users) that – instead of matching with someone because of shared interests – app that matches people based on shared pet hates; Trek Dating (over 500,000 users), a dedicated app for Trekkies who are looking for love; Tastebuds (over 500,000 users) that matches people based on shared music tastes; Muddy Matches (over 200,000 users), which is for the country boy or girl at heart and don’t want to waste time with city folk; and Farmers only (over 150,000 users) for farmers finding love.

2019 has been declared in New York City as the “Year of Pride”, just as the Big Apple is slated to host WorldPride 2019, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising in June, a pivotal moment in LGBTQIA history.

WorldPride will take place in NYC — the first time the global event will be held in the US — from June 25–30, with an anticipated four million visitors.

On June 28, 1969, riots broke out in response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, which is now the country’s first national monument dedicated to LGBTQIA rights. This June and throughout 2019, NYC celebrates Pride.

If in NYC, here are some of the exhibitions, activities and events throughout the year to embody the city’s spirit:

ARTS & CULTURE:

Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again – through March 31
The Whitney Museum of American Art
Last chance to see the first comprehensive retrospective of Warhol’s work organized by an American institution since 1989, and the largest monographic exhibition to date at the Whitney’s new location.

Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50 –through July 14
New York Public Library, Bryant Park, Manhattan
Explore the emergence of the LGBTQ civil rights movement during the 1960s and ’70s through photographs from pioneering journalists Tobin Lahusen and Diana Davies, that sit alongside the library’s vast archives from LGBTQ history.

Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now – through January 5, 2020
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
This multiphase retrospective features Robert Mapplethorpe’s collages and photographs, as well as the work of contemporary artists who reference the artist.

On the (Queer) Waterfront – March 5 through August 4
Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn
Learn about the largely forgotten LGBTQ communities that thrived along Brooklyn’s waterfront in the 1800s and through WWII, highlighting both the changes and continuities in the ideas and experiences of sexuality in Brooklyn.

Lincoln Kirstein’s Modern – March 17 through June 15
Museum of Modern Art & PS1, Manhattan & Queens
Best known for establishing the New York City Ballet, Kirstein was also a key figure in MoMA’s early history. Bringing together some 300 rare artworks alongside materials drawn from the museum’s archives, the exhibition illuminates Kirstein’s influence on MoMA’s collecting, exhibition and publication history, and his position at the center of a New York network of queer artists, intimates and collaborators.

Art After Stonewall, 1969–1989
NYU’s Grey Art Gallery, Manhattan – April 24 through July 20 
Leslie-Lohman Museum, Manhattan – April 24 through July 21
Presented in two parts, this will be the first major exhibition to highlight the impact of the LGBTQ civil rights movement on the art world. Over 150 works of art and materials from artists including Nan Goldin, Holly Hughes, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tim Miller, Catherine Opie and Andy Warhol will be on view, paired with that of artists who interacted with queer subculture.

Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall – May 3 through December 8
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn
Borrowing its title from the rallying words of transgender artist and activist Marsha P. Johnson, Nobody Promised You Tomorrow aims to expand understanding of the Stonewall Uprising beyond the image of protesters in the streets to consider the everyday acts that reinforce such public activism.

Camp: Notes on Fashion – May 9 through September 8
The Met Fifth Avenue, Manhattan
The Costume Institute’s spring 2019 exhibition will explore the origins of the camp aesthetic featuring nearly 200 objects, including womenswear and menswear, as well as sculptures, paintings and drawings dating from the 17th century to the present. The exhibition is inspired by writer Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on Camp.”

Stonewall 50 Exhibitions – May 24 through September 22
New-York Historical Society, Manhattan
Letting Loose and Fighting Back: LGBTQ Nightlife Before and After Stonewall will explore the history of LGBTQ bars, clubs and nightlife in NYC during the second half of the 20th century. By the Force of Our Presence: Highlights from the Lesbian Herstory Archives will examine lesbian lives both pre- and post-Stonewall. Special graphic installation, Say It Loud, Out and Proud: Fifty Years of Pride, will feature imagery from five decades of NYC Pride marches.

Music of Conscience Series – May 30 and June 1
New York Philharmonic, Manhattan
Experience John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1, the New York composer’s “personal response to the AIDS crisis,” inspired by the AIDS Memorial Quilt. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center created its own Quilt Project, and a portion of that quilt—inscribed by visitors to Central Park in June 1988—will be on display in the lobby of David Geffen Hall.

PRIDE –June 6 through November
Museum of the City of New York, Manhattan
Examine NYC through the lens of photographer Fred W. McDarrah, who created an encyclopedic archive of culture and politics for The Village Voice; from the Beats of the 1950s to the counterculture of the ’60s to the Stonewall Uprising and major political events of the early 1970s. The exhibition features images of cultural icons such as Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan, with attention to gay liberation, anti–Vietnam War marches and the women’s movement.

Walt Whitman: Bard of Democracy – June 7 through September 15
The Morgan Library & Museum
Experience Whitman’s writing that earned him a global audience, including “O Captain! My Captain!” Additionally, view documents from Oscar Wilde, Hart Crane, Federico García Lorca and Allen Ginsberg, which trace the writer’s influence on the 20th century.

Pride Auction – June 20
Swann Auction Galleries
A unique and landmark event, featuring work from artists and writers including James Baldwin, Tom of Finland, Gertrude Stein, Alice Walker, Robert Mapplethorpe and more.

NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project – Year-round
Citywide
The recently launched project is the first initiative to document historic and cultural sites associated with the LGBTQ community in all five boroughs. Sites illustrate the richness of the City’s LGBTQ history and the community’s influence on America.

Alice Austen House Museum – Year-round
Staten Island
Take the free Staten Island ferry to visit the Alice Austen House, named by the National Register of Historic Places as the “national site of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) history.” Austen was a turn-of-the-century lesbian photographer who lived with her female companion for many years in her home that boasts views of the Manhattan skyline.

Lesbian Herstory Archives – Year-round
Brooklyn
View the largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities. Part library, part museum, the LHA is a communal place to browse photographs or files, read a book, watch a video, listen to a CD or LP, do research or volunteer. Group tours can also be arranged.

50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising – Year-round
The Jewish Museum, Manhattan
The museum will pay tribute through a year of programming, while highlighting LGBTQ works of art from the museum’s collection that explore themes of gender and identity.

BOROUGH PARADES:

Staten Island PrideFest – May 10–19
PrideFest will celebrate 15 years with a full week of events in May, including a 5K fun run, a Sober Coffee House and a Youth Prom. The week ends with an afternoon festival at Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden featuring live music, drag performers, food trucks and craft vendors.

Harlem Pride – May 31 through June 29
The 10th anniversary of Harlem Pride in 2019 is also the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance. The month-long celebrations will consist of performances, discussions and ceremonies at iconic locations including the Apollo Theater.

Queens Pride – June 2
Pride month kicks off in the heart of Queens with this annual parade down 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, followed by an afternoon street festival in the neighborhood that features music, drag performances and local cuisine. 

Brooklyn Twilight Pride Parade – June 8
Brooklyn puts its own twist on Pride with a nontraditional march starting at dusk through the streets of Park Slope. A Pride street fair will take place with food, crafts and entertainment before the march.

1 Bronx Festival – June 23
The march will take place preceding the annual 1 Bronx Festival that promotes inclusion, community and dialogue. Pride events throughout the festival inspire, educate and celebrate the diverse Bronx community.

Furthermore, visit New York City’s historic LGBTQ landmarks, including: Bethesda Fountain; Christopher Park; Julius; The Langston Hughes House; The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center; The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art; New York City AIDS Memorial; Stonewall Inn.

For more information on NYC’s Year of Pride celebrations, visit
nycgo.com/year-of-pride. For information on WorldPride–specific events, visit nycgo.com/worldpride. And for all things LGBTQIA in NYC, visit nycgo.com/lgbtq.

Apps have become integral to the daily lives of most people around the world today, with there seemingly being an app for every situation. While most apps are geared to cater for everyone, there are many which gentlemen will find especially useful when installed on their latest high tech smartphones.

Therefore, we’ve done our best to seek out the top apps which are perfect for every modern gentleman today.

Evernote

Evernote is the app of choice for businessmen and gentlemen alike when it comes to wanting to organize and access whatever matters most on demand. It’s an app which allows the user to keep everything in the one place, be it to-do’s, images, audio, web pages and documents. Evernote can also sync with multiple devices, ensuring that not only is information available whenever it’s needed, it’s also kept up to date too. Evernote works for everyday life and business and is the organiser app that every gentleman needs to install.

PartyCasino

All work and no play can be a bad path to follow, so having the brilliant bespoke PartyCasino app installed is the solution of choice in our eyes. These guys are one of the biggest names in the online and mobile casino sectors. PartyCasino has some of the best online slots and table games which everyone can enjoy. The brand also has great blackjack games – a game that is perfect for the modern gentlemen due to its excitement and potential reward.

Gordon Ramsay Recipes

There’s no doubt that the number of modern men who enjoy cooking has increased dramatically over the last decade or so. With more and more male celebrity chefs popping up on TV screens, it has seemingly inspired a generation to get into the kitchen and more often. Gordon Ramsay is one of the world’s most popular and recognised multi-Michelin starred chefs, and the Gordon Ramsay Recipes app by Pineapple Developers gives the modern gentleman access to some of his finest recipes and cooking guides in an instant.

My Fitness Pal

My Fitness Pal is the all in one fitness app that a lot of men are now using in order to get fitter and to lose weight. There’s been a rise in the number of men who are now hitting the gym or looking to lead a healthier lifestyle and My Fitness Pal is the ideal app for them. Not only does it allow a person to track their fitness levels and work outs in depth, it also acts as a calorie and diet monitor too. Users can for example scan barcodes on food items which will automatically add them to their daily food diary.

Smartphones and the apps that are being installed on them are ever changing as time and technology advances but the four mentioned above are what you should expect to find on a gentleman’s device and one’s that a modern man should be downloading and installing.

As it is, transgender people already face many barriers in accessing health care, from dealing with issues with intake forms that use non-inclusive language, to challenges finding providers who are knowledgeable about transgender-specific health issues.

But a Michigan Medicine-led study is suggesting that more training may not be the answer to improving competent care, since this study found that more hours of education in the field was not associated with improved knowledge of transgender care among physicians and other providers.

Published in the journal Medical Education, the study found that nearly half of providers said they had cared for a transgender patient, but as many had received no training on the topic. What distinguished knowledgeable providers from those who were less so, however, appeared to have little to do with their medical education.

Transphobia, or a prejudice against people who are transgender, was the only predictor of provider knowledge.

“We were surprised to find that more hours of education about transgender health didn’t correlate with a higher level of knowledge about this topic among providers,” said lead author Daphna Stroumsa, M.D., MPH, an obstetrician gynecologist at University of Michigan’s Von Voigtlander Woman’s Hospital and a National Clinician Scholar at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

“Transgender and gender diverse individuals often face discrimination in health care settings and many are unable to find competent, knowledgeable and culturally-appropriate health care,” Stroumsa added. “Lack of provider knowledge is a significant barrier, but our findings suggest that simply increasing training may not be the solution.

Because of this, “medical education may need to address transphobia and implicit bias in order to improve the quality of care transgender patients receive,” Stroumsa said.

Researchers surveyed 389 attending physicians, advanced practitioners and residents from the departments of internal medicine, family medicine and obstetrics and gynecology in a large urban health system.

It is worth noting that the study did not evaluate the content or format of the education providers were exposed to; but it is still likely that educational efforts that address unconscious bias would be more effective. Stroumsa noted that even in educational programs that address transgender health, the topic is usually presented as a separate section of provider education, rather than as an integral part of general medical education and training – a distinction which may further fuel “othering” of transgender patients.

Many providers – especially those traditionally considered “women’s health” professionals – likely need to be better prepared to care for transgender patients, Stroumsa said.

People who identify as transgender and non-binary may require many of the services provided by Ob/Gyns and other “women’s healthcare” providers, including prenatal and fertility care, cervical cancer screening, menstrual cycle management, as well as gender transition-related care (i.e. hormone therapy), and other routine Ob-Gyn care.

“We obviously have a lot of work to do in improving health outcomes for gender diverse people,” Stroumsa said. “We need to take a close look at our healthcare environments, practices and approaches to medical education. These are just beginning steps in reducing wide health disparities. Creating a safe, knowledgeable, trustworthy care environment will help us expand the care we provide to a broader more diverse patient population.”

Gaming has come a long way thanks to the advancements in technology. The population of gamers on the internet today is a lot higher than it has been in previous years. That said, there is quite the technology to support every aspect of gaming, be it diverse games, gaming accessories and peripherals, gaming chairs and tables, to mention a few.

Talking of gaming chairs, could it be that they had more benefits than meet the eye? Here are the fantastic health benefits of using a gaming chair.

ADEQUATE NECK SUPPORT

The thing with gaming chairs is that they are made to support a lot more than your rear region, much as a sitting surface is for the comfort of your lower part of the body, you need equal support for the top part. Since gaming chairs have a high-back, your neck gets adequate support. This way, you do not need to worry about getting neck cramps from straining your neck too much.

REDUCE BACK PAIN

When you are a frequent gamer, your playing experience shifts from one of seeking comfort to one of demanding comfort. With the long hours that you will spend in front of a screen playing different games, you will feel the pressure mount on your back. Most people fail to realize that when sited on any surface, a lot of pressure is directed in the rear region, but also on the back.

If you do not get a quality gaming chair like the omega gaming chair, then you may suffer a lot of back pain. A gaming chair will align your back and spinal column in the most comfortable and natural curve position, allowing your weight to balance out evenly across your body. This way, you do not pleasure in gaming at the expense of your back. Remember that your priority is in protecting your spinal column from any harm whatsoever.

BETTER SITTING POSTURE

Posture happens to be a crucial health concern that most people take for granted. Not just in the gaming world, but in other scopes of life, a good sitting posture at all times has an added health advantage. Ideally, the regular chairs, or worse, sitting on the floor when gaming, does not allow for a proper sitting posture. The body will always try to adjust to a position of utmost comfort, even when it means compromising the sitting posture. That said, you will need a gaming chair to help with the posture. Since most gaming chairs are ergonomic, they are customized to adopt a better sitting posture than traditional chairs.

The best bit is that the gaming chairs have a reclining function that allows you to fashion a sitting posture that best suits the angle you want to sit while playing, not to mention, protects your spinal alignment.

FATIGUE PREVENTION

Fatigue in the body is a factor that can not only cause your body to strain but accounts for the stress levels in your body. As a gamer, you may not have the privilege of enjoying social interaction and activities to help with coping with fatigue. Form the different sitting positions, slouching and postures you take up as your play; there is a high likelihood that your body will end up being fatally fatigued. Technically, the crucial body parts like the lower back, neck, shoulders, and even feet, require proper support.

Without a gaming chair, most of your sitting positions will result in weakly feelings after extensive gaming. With time, muscles in some of your crucial body areas become weak, until you are too fatigued to play effectively and make your moves.

BETTER BLOOD FLOW

Another critical concern is that of proper blood circulation in the body at all times. Most of the health practices people take up, including drinking a lot of water, walking and stretching the body every once in a while, eating proper foods, among others, are all in support of better blood flow in your body.

When playing video games, a lot of time is spent sitting around, without much movement of the body. This means that the body may not enjoy a proper blood flow, especially in parts of the body like the feet, and the head. That said, with a regular chair, you will be exposing your body to the risk of reduction in lower body circulation.  To avoid such issues as dizziness, shortness of breath, among others, you must consider a gaming chair to ease the flow of blood throughout your system. The bottom and sides of a gaming chair are usually made in a way to keep the body in the correct posture that facilitates pumping of the blood to all parts of the body, even the legs.

The fight for marriage equality shows the true colors of people around us. And we’re getting sick with the realization of how people really see us and our relationships.

This is the gist of a study done by psychologists at the University of Sydney, which showed that increased exposure to negative messages about same-sex marriage was associated with greater psychological distress for lesbian, gay and bisexual people (in this case in particular, Australians during the 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey).

Published in the Australian Psychological Society’s journal, Australian Psychologist, the study assessed the mental health of 1,305 Australians who identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual during the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey in 2017.

The research found increased exposure to homophobic campaign and media messages was related to increased levels of depression, anxiety and stress among same-sex attracted Australians.

“The findings highlight how political decision-making and legislative processes related to the rights of minority populations have the potential to negatively affect their mental health,” said lead author Stefano Verrelli, a doctoral candidate at the University of Sydney’s School of Psychology.

A silver lining: The study showed that the stigmatized social status of lesbian, gay and bisexual identity may be a source of stress, but could also serve as a source of resilience when it provides individuals with opportunities for social support.

The research also identified factors that can protect the mental health of same-sex attracted people during periods of intense public and political scrutiny.

“The family and friends of same-sex attracted people appear to play an important role – and seem to even offset some of the harm done by the negative side of these debates – by openly supporting LGBT rights,” Verrelli said.

LGBT rights and mental-health organizations also have an important role to play by continuing their public support of minority issues. Their public messages of support appear to improve the psychological well-being of same-sex attracted people who require it most.

Verrelli and his research team in the School of Psychology – working with researchers at Macquarie University – used the minority stress model and surveys of mental health with lesbian, gay and bisexual Australians to reach their findings.