'Love Is Blind’ stars call out ‘superficial’ big-city dating, say Midwest is the real ‘hidden gem’
"Love Is Blind" just wrapped its 10th season, and one of the couples who tied the knot this season spoke out about why dating is so hard nowadays.
During an interview with Fox News Digital, one of this season's strongest couples, Vic St. John and Christine Hamilton, shared the biggest differences between dating in the Midwest versus in a big city such as Los Angeles or New York.
"I think Midwest dating culture, at least in my experience, in my understanding of it, folks wanna put down roots," St. John said. "They wanna put like homes and families and so forth. It's a slower pace, but still quick enough where you can find things to do, whether that's Ohio or other places in the Midwest. I think it's a hidden gem in a lot of ways."
Hamilton added that she doesn't "know any different than the Midwest" but says knowing the level of "superficial" people in her area, she can only imagine "how much more intensified that must be in more concentrated areas like New York or LA."
She added that with the invention of dating apps, "options are endless" now.
"You're swiping through apps, you're swiping through social media," she said. "It seems like an endless amount of people, even more compared to like what we have in like our little smaller cities, which already feels huge. So yeah, I am sure that would be very different."
WATCH: ‘LOVE IS BLIND’ STARS THINK PEOPLE IN THE MIDWEST ARE LOOKING TO PUT DOWN ‘ROOTS’
Having met on "Love Is Blind," the couple had the unique opportunity to get to know each other on a deeper emotional level and falling in love through conversation before ever meeting each other face to face.
When speaking with Fox News Digital, St. John credited the show, which is often referred to by the hosts and the participants as an experiment, for getting rid of "the superficial level of things that can easily break relationships," and focusing on the "foundational elements of getting to know someone."
"I think coming to Columbus and being able to go into the pods and meet someone who's like, I'm gonna put down roots here in Columbus, and we have these same value systems and similar backgrounds and outlooks and visions for life. Without even seeing each other. I was like, yeah, perfect, like this is home," he said. "So I think the experiment itself was helpful, but then sometimes in big cities, things can be very superficial. We needed that removed."
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While getting to know each other in the early stages of the show, male and female contestants speak to each other through opposite sides of a wall, in rooms they calls pods. In the pods, the couples talk about a wide range of topics in order to decide if they are compatible as a married couple.
WATCH: ‘LOVE IS BLIND’ STARS SHARED THE SHOW REMOVED THE SUPERFICIAL ELEMENTS THAT COULD GET IN THE WAY OF RELATIONSHIPS
One hot topic that was heavily discussed this season was politics, something St. John said can be used as "a proxy" when it comes to "modern dating," in the sense that it can help people "make quick decisions" about whether to pursue a relationship or not, adding he disagrees with that mentality because "there are gonna be nuances in that behind everyone."
"If folks aren't politically aligned on certain things because it'll spill over into other values and whatnot," he said. "But I think it's worth at least taking a closer look beyond that before you make the decision."
He continued: "And I say that from a place of like someone who interacts, whether it's my students, whether it is my colleagues, the whole nine of people across the political spectrum including independents and the whole nine. You can go beyond that, right? People are more dynamic and deeper than that. And then make a decision."
WATCH: ‘LOVE IS BLIND’ STARS MADE IT A POINT NOT TO DISCUSS POLITICS DURING THE SHOW
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Hamilton echoed her husband's words, adding that she "never asked politically where he falls," but what was important to her was that they had a shared faith and value system.
"We talked about a million other key factors, and I think we kind of had maybe some assumption of where we are," she said. "But it was more about the heart than what box you checked. So we knew that we aligned on those things. Whereas I think, like you said, a lot of people do the opposite. They want to know what they check and then maybe miss some of the other things."
Hamilton and St. John were one of two couples who ended up getting married this season.