I met my soon to be wife on a dating app. You might think from that opening sentence that I'm about to extol the virtues of dating apps. I am not. They are garbage, so I agree the trash can is the best place.

This was during covid lockdowns, so no social opportunities, and I had recently moved to a new area and didn't know anyone nearby. So seemed the only option, terrible as it is. And yeah it worked out for me, but that's beating the odds. It was an unpleasant experience and was thrilled to be done with it. But, it might be a similar situation for others. No better option seemingly available.

That said, prior to that, I attended a lot of meetups via meetup.com and had a fair bit of luck dating through that. And regardless of if I met someone or not at any given thing, I had fun.