Archive for August 19th, 2010

Aug 19 2010

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georgina

Andrew Chow shares his thoughts on being in demand in your 20s to joining the supply curve in your mid 30s…

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There was a time 4 years ago; a foreign press reported a story about Singaporean being the best in the world in terms of competitiveness, efficiency and high-standard of living. The headline was “Singaporeans can do anything except dating!”

My initial reaction was a rush of anger because there’s plenty of dating going on, just that not many of them want to settle down.
Singletons in Singapore must start dating early in their lives to order to have higher chances of finding a life partner.  The older a man or a woman gets, the harder for him or her to be motivated by just a TV ad or a campaign. Expectations change but the management of that expectation…hardly.
Singles must realise that there is no perfect one out there. The key is not to find the right one but to be the right one when the suitable one comes along.
In the first 10 years after their inception from 1984, SDU enjoyed great success in pairing singles up (commonly known as success rate). That was also the time where there were no mobile phones, MSN, SMS to go along. Choices were limited, decision-making was simple.
From 1994 to 2004, with the booming of the internet age, technology has made communication channels more accessible. Ironically, we didn’t communicate any better. With online dating sites, the choices are bountiful, the playing fields are bigger, more dating is going on but less marriages.
Romancing Singapore came around that time, hoping to use the media and a campaign to encourage more sparks among the singles. In 2005, with the help of the private sector, it became a festival to be celebrated once a year. Eventually it became a social networking style through the emergence of a portal riding on the wave of the social media.
Social media is the new age of social interaction. We do not need another campaign, we just need to give more encouragement to the Gen Z (1990 –onwards) to settle down early in life.
We have come a long way from moving away from the government trying to do their part in solving the ageing population problem. Having another campaign now will set Singapore 5-8 years back.  Is this campaign Romancing Singapore 2.0? If yes, why was Romancing Singapore obsolete in the first place?
Most singles in their 20s do not feel the sense of urgency to settle down, they only do when their friends are all married. When you are in the 20s, you are in demand, when you are in middle 30s, you join the supply curve. We are always told that singles are just too busy to socialize and they need help. Being in this line for 5 years, I find that the opposite is true. Many singles have too many opportunities meeting other singles but somehow just cannot find the right match for whatever reasons.
The private personalised dating agencies are doing a great job organising events and arranging dates based on criteria. The government should be looking into coaching social match makers to develop good advocates. Using the right social media content and conversation, the mindset can be changed hopefully in the next 5 years.
Andrew Chow is a certified Life Coach, Serial Entrepreneur, Speaker/Author and Master Match Maker in Singapore. Andrew is fondly called “ideasandrew” in all his social media connections in platforms like Facebook, Linked, Flickr, etc. He has also founded four of his own social networking portals for business or social groups with over 10,000 profiles.

There was a time 4 years ago; a foreign press reported a story about Singaporean being the best in the world in terms of competitiveness, efficiency and high-standard of living. The headline was “Singaporeans can do anything except dating!”

My initial reaction was a rush of anger because there’s plenty of dating going on, just that not many of them want to settle down.

Singletons in Singapore must start dating early in their lives to order to have higher chances of finding a life partner.  The older a man or a woman gets, the harder for him or her to be motivated by just a TV ad or a campaign. Expectations change but the management of that expectation…hardly.

Singles must realise that there is no perfect one out there. The key is not to find the right one but to be the right one when the suitable one comes along.

In the first 10 years after their inception from 1984, SDU enjoyed great success in pairing singles up (commonly known as success rate). That was also the time where there were no mobile phones, MSN, SMS to go along. Choices were limited, decision-making was simple.

From 1994 to 2004, with the booming of the internet age, technology has made communication channels more accessible. Ironically, we didn’t communicate any better. With online dating sites, the choices are bountiful, the playing fields are bigger, more dating is going on but less marriages.

Romancing Singapore came around that time, hoping to use the media and a campaign to encourage more sparks among the singles. In 2005, with the help of the private sector, it became a festival to be celebrated once a year. Eventually it became a social networking style through the emergence of a portal riding on the wave of the social media.

Social media is the new age of social interaction. We do not need another campaign, we just need to give more encouragement to the Gen Z (1990 –onwards) to settle down early in life.

We have come a long way from moving away from the government trying to do their part in solving the ageing population problem. Having another campaign now will set Singapore 5-8 years back.  Is this campaign Romancing Singapore 2.0? If yes, why was Romancing Singapore obsolete in the first place?

Most singles in their 20s do not feel the sense of urgency to settle down, they only do when their friends are all married. When you are in the 20s, you are in demand, when you are in middle 30s, you join the supply curve. We are always told that singles are just too busy to socialize and they need help. Being in this line for 5 years, I find that the opposite is true. Many singles have too many opportunities meeting other singles but somehow just cannot find the right match for whatever reasons.

The private personalised dating agencies are doing a great job organising events and arranging dates based on criteria. The government should be looking into coaching social match makers to develop good advocates. Using the right social media content and conversation, the mindset can be changed hopefully in the next 5 years.

Andrew Chow is a certified Life Coach, Serial Entrepreneur, Speaker/Author and Master Match Maker in Singapore. Andrew is fondly called “ideasandrew” in all his social media connections in platforms like Facebook, Linked, Flickr, etc. He has also founded four of his own social networking portals for business or social groups with over 10,000 profiles.

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