Jamie Fields is one of those women. The 42-year-old from Santa Monica, Calif., rejoined Match.com the weekend after Thanksgiving, having broken up with the guy she'd been seeing the past few months.
Although Fields had attempted to find men in the real world, the past few times she'd been to wine bars with a girlfriend in the hopes of meeting someone new, she said, "We were like, 'Where are all the people?' There aren't any."
For Fields, it was the relatively recent void of people in public places that led her to spend more time with her keyboard. But for a lot of other Americans, it's decreased wealth - both real and perceived - that's keeping them home, inspiring them to spend less money and more quality time with their computers.
Money worries are making them even more picky. Although Match.com reported a 50 percent increase in profile views from November to December, a recent survey of 1,500 members found that 84 percent of them were "being more selective about first dates in today's economy."
"There's this underlying anxiety I feel energetically everywhere I go," Fields said. "Everybody I meet, there's this tentativeness."
That tentativeness is extending beyond a singleton's willingness to seal the deal and make a first date. It's also manifesting as a hesitancy to reach for the check at the end of an outing.
"Guys aren't jumping on it anymore," Fields said. "It's uncomfortable."
Wendy Rice, a 33-year-old chef from Hollywood, said she'd also experienced an unusually high frequency of daters playing "chicken" with the bill.
"Some guy took me out to dinner at Benihana's, and he only brought $100. I was like, 'Hello. You're taking me out,' " said Rice.
"Another guy took me out and said he forgot his wallet." Rice didn't believe him.
"You left your house. You picked me up. You put gas in your car. You bought yourself cigarettes," she said.
Men ages 25 to 44 are feeling the most stressed about the effects of their personal economic situations on their love lives, according to the eHarmony survey. Psychologist Diana Kirschner speculates it's because American men derive so much self-worth from their jobs.
"A lot of self-esteem and self-love and the identity of being a powerful person is tied up with work in this culture," said Kirschner, a New York City relationship expert and author.
But even though less income often means lower self-esteem, it doesn't have to be that way, Kirsch-ner said.
"When there's less money available to go on fancier dates, people can have a very simple connection that's even more fulfilling," she said.
Doing things like going for a walk means there's more talking. And where "there's more talking, there's more sharing, so there's intimacy. There's more closeness. You wind up being more real with each other," she said. "It's not about impressing the other person, because you can't [afford] to impress them."
