Editing Speed dating (section)

==History==

In the 19th century, there was a custom in some areas of the United States called New Year's Calling. On New Year's Day, January 1, many young, single women would hold an "open house" (a party or reception during which a person's home is open to visitors) where they would invite eligible [[bachelors]], both friends and strangers, to stop by for a brief (no more than 10–15-minute) visit.<ref>{{cite web |title=Speed Dating In The 19th Century |website=The Protojournalist (NPR) |date=15 December 2014 |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/theprotojournalist/2014/12/15/370323910/speed-dating-in-the-19th-century}}</ref>

The earliest documented example of speed dating was by Aryeh (Alan) and Rena Hirsch of Los Angeles in early 1996, who developed speed dating as a solution to the problem of typical single events where "only attractive women and outgoing men have success at the end of the evening".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://jenv.org/media/matchmaker_matchmaker|title=Matchmaker, Matchmaker|author=Diane Arieff Zaga|work=The Jewish Journal, February 2–8, 1996}}</ref>

"SpeedDating", as a single word, is a registered trademark of [[Aish HaTorah]], who began hosting such events in 1998.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kennedy |first=Pagan |date=2013-09-27 |title=Who Made Speed Dating? |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/magazine/who-made-speed-dating.html |access-date=2022-05-03 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

During the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], speed dating and all other dating events were paused out of caution of contracting the disease.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Aridi |first=Sara |date=2021-05-07 |title=Has the Pandemic Changed Dating Forever? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/well/covid-dating-advice.html |access-date=2024-01-23 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> However in 2023, speed dating and other in-person meetup mixers have increased from before the pandemic.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wolfe |first=Rachel |date=2023-02-14 |title=A Novel Dating Idea: Meeting Lots of People in Person Quickly |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/speed-dating-online-apps-singles-nights-5b35552f |url-access=subscription |access-date=2023-02-14 |work=Wall Street Journal |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2024, in-person singles events continued to grow by 41% year over year driven by dating app fatigue. <ref>{{Cite news |last= Meyersohn |first=Nathaniel |date=2024-02-14 |title=Singles are sick of dating apps. Here’s what they’re doing instead |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/14/business/speed-dating-game-event-nyc/index.html |access-date=2024-02-14 |work=CNN |language=en-US}}</ref>