Jersey Singles React to Survey: Dating on the Decline
Dave Floerke, left, laughed while enjoying a glass of champagne with Nicole Hartman on their first date at Adega Restaurant and Wine Bar Tuesday night. They were matched by Kris Kenny. (Photo By Karl Gehring/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Dating in Jersey is so expensive that some daters are asking for refunds when the dates don’t “work out” as they like. Some are splitting the cost, but it’s still quite costly even if you date only once a week. Now it’s gotten worse.
With the economy in rough shape and inflation at its highest point in decades, a new survey shows it’s not only taking a toll on people’s bottom lines but on their love lives as well.
Lending Tree polled 1,578 Americans to see how they were holding up in the “getting out there” department, and 20% of them said they simply can’t afford to date as much as they’d like to because of inflation.
No surprise, then, that 77% admitted dating would be easier if they had more money. Eighty-three percent of men felt that way compared to 73% of women, according to the poll.
On a related note, the poll also revealed more than half of the male respondents think the man should pay on a date with the opposite sex. Just 26% of women feel the daters should split the tab, which means three out of four women don’t think they should pay any portion of the cost of the date.
Thirty-two percent of respondents say they’d still take somebody out if they couldn’t afford it, with more men than women willing to get into debt to date. In fact, millennials were among those most likely to go into debt because of their dating habits.
The survey also revealed that 6% of Americans have had their credit card declined on a date. Those who earn more don’t worry much about that, the poll showed those with salaries ranging from 75 thousand through six figures a year have the best chance for a first date leading to a second date.
As the song says…
Bruno Mars 10 Best Songs
Bruno Mars, born Peter Gene Hernandez, was born on October 8, 1985, and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. The musician is known for his amazing stage performances, retro showmanship, and for writing in a wide range of musical styles, including pop, R&B, funk, soul, reggae, disco, and rock. At the age of two, his father gave him the nickname “Bruno” because of his resemblance to Italian professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino. His uncle was an Elvis Presley impersonator and encouraged Mars at three years old to perform songs on stage by Presley and Michael Jackson. By age four, he began performing five days a week with his family’s band, The Love Notes, and became known in Hawaii for his impersonation of Elvis Presley. At six years old, Bruno appeared on a segment of the Arsenio Hall Show in 1991.
Bruno’s Professional Music Career
Mars moved to Los Angeles in 2003 to pursue a professional musical career at 17 years old. He added Mars at the end of his stage name because, “I felt like I didn’t have no pizzazz, and a lot of girls say I’m out of this world, so I was like, I guess I’m from Mars.” In addition, the adoption of his stage name was an effort to “avoid being stereotyped,” as the music industry tried to pigeonhole him as another Latin artist. They even tried to convince Mars to sing in Spanish. Mars rose to fame in 2010 with the success of being featured on “Nothin’ on You” by B.o.B and “Billionaire” by Travie McCoy. That year, the singer-songwriter released his debut studio album Doo-Wops & Hooligans, which featured hits: “Grenade,” “Talking To The Moon,” “Count On Me,” “Just the Way You Are,” and “Marry You.”
From then, Bruno Mars came out with his second studio album, Unorthodox Jukebox, in 2012 and his third studio album four years later in 2016, 24K Magic. In 2021, Mars and Anderson .Paak formed the musical duo known as Silk Sonic, releasing their funky collaborative studio album An Evening with Silk Sonic, which delved into ’70s R&B and soul. In February 2023, Mars announced he was working on his fourth solo studio album, with a new sound and an unconfirmed release date. The artist is also in early talks with Live Nation Entertainment to set up a tour throughout 2024 and 2025, with “large-scale, three-dimensional” performances.
Mars has sold over 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He became the first artist to receive six Diamond-certified songs in the United States and has been regarded as a pop icon due to his influential career.
We have compiled our ten favorite Bruno Mars songs. See what they are below:
Joel Katz is the Morning Show Personality, Assistant Program Director, Podcast Host, Voiceover artist, audio producer, and Digital Content Writer for Magic 98.3. Joel has been working in New Jersey radio since college and started at Magic in 2002 as the Morning Show Host, “I can’t think of another place where I’d fit more perfectly; it’s just a great company with awesome people.” Joel is married to Kathleen, his elementary school sweetheart (they were each other’s first dates at age 9), shares a birthday with his oldest son, Ty, and has twins, Kiera and Liam. Joel runs at least 3.1 miles every day and enjoys playing basketball, doing laundry, saving his turn signal for when he really needs it, kissing dogs through a fence, using coasters, making that cool noise by rubbing his fingers on balloons, and chasing after ping pong balls on a windy cruise ship.
