What Tinder taught me about dating.

Today in class, Elliot mentioned about a social network app called Tinder that enables users to select “like” or “nope” to other users profiles. As the profile contains limited information, Tinder is well known for allowing users to judge other users based on appearance. If two users select “like” for one another, the match is made known to both users. At this point, users gain access to a message system exclusively through the app, allowing users to converse without sharing any extra personal information. I’ve always thought that this app is somewhat controversial.

What I found out from Wiki was that due to the differences between the advertised purposed of the app (matching making and networking) and the intentions of most users, there has been somewhat of a controversy surrounding the real intent of the app. What started out as an experiment with friends, (a friend of mine told me it was fun laughing at people’s faces and told me to download the app), got me thinking about what has this app has got to say about dating in general. Having to file people away base on your attractiveness level, making a split second decision based on minimal facts? Is this app more of an intent to promote the idea of hooking up instead, since it provides users with a “hot” or “not” model. What happens to people who meet through tinder? Are they looking for a substantial relationship or just merely meeting people who are just down to f*** or just have “fun”? It is also seen as breaking the traditional courtship and dating models!!! I’m never a fan of dating applications and I would never want to succumb to such applications no matter how lonely singlehood can be, but here are some lesssons tinder has taught me about dating,  ( in that brief moment, where I was forced to download the app to laugh at “ugly” people)

(Trust me, this was the exact reaction when I saw a person that fell under the “NOT” category) HAHAHAHAHA

1. Dating apps like Tinder are so sketchy.
Yes, it pulls info from your Facebook to create your profile, and then pulls up ‘matches’ that meet your age/sex/location criteria. But still, users can still choose and pick on images that they would like others to see. (spell d0DgY)

2. Are online personas always real?
Most of the time people who communicate through these apps via words on a screen would ASSUME that they the other match would somehow share the same level of commitment in real life just because of a word in the interest criteria that says : love partying, girls, fun. Duh. It’s typical & sounds rather shallow.

3. Sad but true, you never get a second chance on first impressions.
You’re either HOT or NOT.  (really really, sad truth about life, SIGH)

4.  If the main photo is a picture of 2 guys, the actual one would always be the less cuter one.

5. Nah, I’m never meeting my future boyfriend in an app.

6.  While some of us would spend our time chilling at a cafe or the grass patch observing people (people watching), every now and then, an attractive person walks by and some how or another you’ve always wished you had plucked up the courage to say hi. Well,  we now have an app for it. Hot OR not, it’s your choice. As for me, I’ll rather keep it to myself and let fate decide …