March 28, 2024

There’s a new social media out there and folks, it’s . . . interesting. Tinder is its name and matching people with people is its game.
I wouldn’t call Tinder a dating app like Match.com, eHarmony, or any of the others because I don’t think that dating is the main objective of Tinder. There isn’t a Tinder website, just an app. When you open the app, it immediately asks to connect to your Facebook. Then you make a profile, using pictures from your Facebook.
Then you start “matching.” Matching is basically looking at other men or women’s profiles in and around your same location and liking them or discarding them by swiping on the screen right or left, respectively. So the whole point of Tinder is to connect to people you are attracted to, based on six pictures and a brief profile. If you like a profile and that person also likes your profile then the app “matches” you together and gives you the ability to communicate over the app via messages.
Here’s the thing about Tinder: there are no rules. None. You can put anything you want as your bio, you can put any picture you want as your profile, and you can say anything to whomever you are matched with. There is no person to complain to if you see something you don’t want to see, if the person you get matched with doesn’t have real pictures on, if you are messaged something inappropriate. There is also no age limit.
As an experiment, I made a profile on Tinder. For a day and a half I put up one type of profile of myself. I had a total of four pictures for this first stage. My primary photo was of me in my bathing suit. The other three were pictures of myself in formal, tighter dresses that were taken at parties. Then I made my profile say simply, “Looking for a good time.” Some of the people I “liked” were actually fellows that I found attractive, although I did like some others who I felt would be interesting to talk to. With my profile in this manner, I was matched with 90 different men. I had conversations with about half of this number. Once a fellow made the first move, I would continue the conversation until they asked for my phone number, my address, or if they asked to meet up somewhere.
And what interesting conversations I had. A few guys were very polite and seemed like they generally wanted to get to know me. However, many did not have such chivalrous intentions. I had a lot of comments on my physical appearance.
Then after a day and a half, I switched up my profile. I put an actual description of myself in and I changed to goofy pictures of me in costumes or doing weird things. Then I waited to see how many matches I got after I changed the profile and who would continue to talk to me from before. In another day and a half, I only received nine more matches with guys who were seeing the new profile and held/continued conversations with a total of 16 guys.
The experience was incredible interesting! I learned a lot about people in general and the way of the world. I also learned a lot about Tinder itself. I really would not recommend the app or the process to anyone due to several reasons. I didn’t really appreciate lots of my conversations with these guys. Also I don’t believe that the app is very safe. The app lets other viewers of your profile know how far away from them that your location is, which could be potentially problematic. Also people of all ages can be on Tinder, as I said before. For example, I matched with a man who was 50-years-old and had two daughters. He and I ended up having a conversation and then he commented on my physical appearance in my bathing suit and I got uncomfortable so I stopped the conversation.
I also question what the app does for relationships and for materialistic issues. Users can either get a big swell of confidence from the app or it can make users’ self esteem decrease. Either way, I don’t recommend the process at all. But if you are looking for a good time, just put that in your profile’s description and I’m sure you will get some takers!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *