For those of you who do not know, Tinder is the newest
dating site craze. It connects with your
Facebook to upload a few of your most recent profile pictures, as well as
connects you to friends of friends that are single and within your dating parameters. That is probably the best feature of the app,
because you never know what cuties your friends are hoarding away from
you. Another positive feature of the app
is that people can only message you if you are mutually interested, and vice versa. The glitch in the matrix there, however, is that you decide if you like someone solely
by the few pictures they upload, if they happen to write a quick blurb about
themselves, and the Facebook groups/interests you have in common. It is mainly an extremely superficial dating
website, but let’s be honest here, we are all superficial when it comes to dating. If someone’s face does not interest you, you
are not going to make the effort to go up and talk to them; that is just a fact
of life. Sure, maybe someone you would
not normally find attractive comes up and talks to you and you fall in like
with their personality, I’m all for giving everyone equal opportunity, but to
say that you do not judge people initially on their looks is a lie. First impressions are everything, and Tinder
has capitalized on that. If you like the way someone looks, you swipe right, if
you do not, you swipe left. It is as
simple as that, and trust me, it can be a very quick and addictive process.
Being as the site is grounded on a superficial facet, it has
gotten the bad rap of being a ‘hookup site.’
Well, being well versed in trolling internet dating sites, as many of my
blogs can attest, every site can
quickly go from ‘find love in a hopeless place’ to ‘get your eyes assaulted by
creeps.’ That being said, when one of my
best girlfriend’s decided to come out of her dating hiatus and take the plunge
onto Tinder, I didn’t fight her when she asserted that I needed to join
too. Mainly we joined for moral support,
and to laugh at all the ridiculousness that comes with internet dating.
Now, Tinder,
like most other free dating sites, does have its fair share of thirsty[1]
creeps, but you can usually spot them out and avoid them. You do happen to stumble upon the occasional
lewd photo, but you can quickly swipe left and never see that person
again. Most of the time you can tell by
the pictures that someone posts if they’re just looking for a hookup, sometimes
they even say it in their ‘about me’ blurb.
So once you get passed the ‘hook up’ people, you have everyone
else. Getting passed the ‘thirsties’[2]
is an easy feat, it is then dealing with everyone else that proves to be more
difficult.
Once you dive into the belly of the beast and are pouring through the profiles of ‘relationship
oriented’ people, you will quickly find yourself horrified. Sure, they are probably relationship worthy,
but no one takes this site seriously.
Basically, if you are looking for your life partner, do not use
Tinder. Default pictures are a sea of
poor photoshops, shamelessly unflattering selfies and [as my poor eyes have had
the majority of witnessing] people’s heinies[3]. I cannot tell you how many people find it
acceptable to pose with their buttox out in the open, or, my personal favorite
to laugh at, a ‘selfie’ of them wiith a mirror in the background showing
their exposed henie . . . DISGUSTING! Have some
class, people, you may meet someone’s parents one day (Lord knows you’ll never
become a politician) and is this the
kind of behavior you want them knowing about you? It’s just gross and tasteless, albeit mildly
humorous, you’re the internet troll[4]
and it’s not okay.
Even after you weed through those weirdos, there will still be another test . . . How you
interact with the people of your choosing.
I have said this in previous blogs, interacting with people via text is difficult;
it is a talent to say the least. To be
able to put your thoughts down on paper is one thing, but to have them be
written in such a way that they convey the exact message you intended is a
skill that, quite frankly, very few possess.
Flirting is hard enough as is, but when you put it into text, a lot of
it comes off as creepy rather than cute and funny. That is certainly the case when you are
messaging with people you do not know and have no idea if they really are
indeed joking and being coy or if they are just huge weirdo jerks!! You see, flirting on the internet is a very
fine, fine, dance. Things can go from
cute to creepy very quickly, so you need to make sure you are either completely
not invested in your new found internet friend, or what you are saying comes
off playful and not inappropriate and scary. So really, you need to learn how to take social queues. If you say something and then someone stops answering, re-read what you wrote. If you do not find anything wrong with it, then hey, maybe the message got lost in the shuffle and you should reach out again. However, the flip side, if you think the message could have been taken the wrong way (and let's face it, we've all been there) then MAYBE reach out again if you want to clarify . . .but do not do not under any circumstances continuously message them. For those troubled souls, you can use another great Tinder feature, the 'Block' function.
With all that being said, for your entertainment, I will
attach a brief example of some of Tinder’s best. For the sake of anonymity, and legal reasons,
the faces have been blocked out . . .but you can still get the gist.
You're very welcome, glad you enjoyed it. There are tons of other dating articles on the blog if you're looking for more online dating 'how to's
ReplyDeleteThank you for diving into the Tinder world so I don't have to. Your bravery at facing adversity (heines) is to be truly commended. I would recommend if you want to follow up on your Tinder investigative journalism, you go on a date with one of these eligible bachelors :)
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome for diving into uncharted waters for you! and I DID! Two people!! I feel like one was live tweeted. The other was a hand holder. YIKES!
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