The Truth About Tinder

Let’s get real about dating in this day and age… it sucks. Dating is hard. Getting to know someone new and seeing how they fit into your life and vice versa is really difficult. Blind dates are usually pretty horrible and friendly “I know someone who is perfect for you, let me introduce you” setups don’t typically work out in our favor either. There are a hundred and one different places for you to meet people in public, but how many of them are actually feasible to approach a perfect stranger? Not too many, if we’re being completely honest.
Enter online dating. If we’re to believe the commercials, it can be super successful in helping people to find their ideal significant other, but there’s also a lot of people for whom it doesn’t work. There are also a lot of online dating sites out there claiming to be the perfect one for you. Between e-Harmony, Zoosk, Plenty of Fish, Christian Mingle, Farmers Only, and all of the other ones, how are you supposed to choose which one is the right one for you? Sure, if you’re not a farmer, or a Christian for that matter, there’s two off the list, but it still leaves a lot of options.

For some people, they like a certain level on anonymity when first trying to meet someone to date, so they choose phone apps to give it a shot. One of the most popular, at the moment, is Tinder. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Tinder is primarily thought of as a “hook-up” app, which essentially means that no one using it is looking for anything long term, but you may be surprised to find out that that’s not necessarily true anymore.

Certainly, there are a lot of people who use Tinder for that purpose and that purpose only, but that’s not everyone. There are some people who favor Tinder because there isn’t such an immediate feeling of rejection. If you try to contact someone on a different online dating site and they don’t contact you back or even worse say they’re not interested outright, it can be disheartening. With Tinder, a simple swipe left or right let’s you tell someone you’re interested.

Right now you’re probably thinking that if you’ve swiped that you like someone, they’re going to see it and that is total rejection. Well with Tinder, they don’t know that you liked them unless they like you back. Then the app alerts them that they had a mutual match and allows you to open up your attraction to further conversation. It’s relatively safe in that you’ve probably forgotten you said you liked someone because there is such a plethora of people from which to choose.

Now Tinder’s swipe system is largely based on appearance, at least at first glance. There are a lot of people who go a little swipe crazy based on a photo, and not a lot of people are reading your profile blurb. Some people would argue that this is a fairly shallow way to begin a relationship, but realistically, it’s the way most relationships begin. You’re not approaching the girl across the bar because you can tell she also is interesting in hiking and deep sea fishing. You’re approaching her because you saw something you liked. To make the argument that Tinder is shallow is somewhat moot as dating in general begins in a shallow fashion.

Sure, there are a lot of people on Tinder who are looking for short-term encounters or casual dating, but there are also people looking for a lasting relationship. It’s likely the easiest way to find people with common dating interests without having to weed through everyone who says they like you on the other dating sites. If you’re not looking for a life partner, but rather someone to date and have fun with, then Tinder may just be the perfect thing for you.