My friends and mentors have been hassling me to get a girlfriend for a while. So in an effort to meet new people, I subjected myself to the lowest form of match making there is: Tinder.
Swipe left. Left. Left. Left again. Wow, she looks interesting. Swipe right.
Those who have explored the strange world of Tinder know what I”m talking about.
For those who don”t, the premise is simple. The app syncs through Facebook and shows the profiles of other – presumably single – people in the area. Users decide whether or not they are interested in the person based on profile pictures taken from Facebook and a brief personal description.
If a user swipes left on a person, they are not interested. If both users swipe right on each other, they get matched and enter into a message conversation.
This is where Tinder gets sassy. “This screen would look a lot better with a conversation in it,” or “Tinder can”t do the typing for you.”
Thanks Tinder, starting a conversation with a complete stranger is not awkward enough without you acting like a snarky, slightly inebriated wingman.
It helps to have some kind of common interest with the person, but nothing can escape the natural hesitation and self-doubt that comes with staring at a blank screen.
Call me unoriginal, but I start out with a joke. I usually make fun of the fact that I play the trombone. I”ve also been known to try a few knock-knock jokes now and then.
Cheesy? Yes. Effective? Results may vary.
On the Palouse, there is a large Greek showing on Tinder. With two healthy Greek systems only eight miles a part, sorority signs and smiling faces were a common sight for me while surfing the app. And although almost every WSU sorority girl passed on me – go figure – I had my fair share of success meeting indie, literary types near Moscow.
Let me be clear (insert Obama voiceover): Tinder is shallow, and it has no problem embracing the stereotype. It”s not helpful to people looking for a serious relationship – if this wasn”t obvious before.
It combines the need for quick entertainment with the instinct to judge people by their looks, which is an easy thing to do.
When users reject somebody, a red “Nope” sign appears on the person”s picture as it slides off the screen. At first, I found this to be a crude and unnecessary way to pass on somebody. But the more time I spent on the app, the more I realized how comical the red sign and the entire app was.
The trick to Tinder is not taking it seriously and embracing the oddity of it all, the swiping, the weird conversations and the awkward moment when you get matched with a classmate you don”t have much interest in. The app doesn”t try to pretend to be something it”s not, and in a strange way I respect that.
It”s an app to check between classes, and it allows users to have a fun conversation with someone new. For me, it served as a reminder of how many people out there are looking to be a little less lonely, and a reminder of how many people want to get laid.
In large part, it”s what every generation is like in their early 20s. But with millennials, it comes out in apps like Tinder and the number of other offshoot dating apps designed for hooking up.
And yes, we will all look back 20 years from now and be embarrassed by the shallowness of it all, but we”re not there yet, so until then, swipe away.
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]