Sayonara RSVP, it was fun while it lasted e-harmony, but it’s time to make way for a next generation dating application – Tinder.
With many of my friends embarking on ‘Tinder dates’ recently, I was a more than a little curious to see what all of the fuss is about – and what I found was pretty astounding.
But first, what is Tinder? I discovered that it works off of the premise of speed dating, where you meet several people in a short amount of time, you either ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ them and then at the end of the session, if you and a prospective partner have both ‘yayed’ each other, you’re allowed to swap details. The same goes with Tinder. Basically, unless someone you ‘tick’, ‘ticks’ you back, you don’t have the conversation functionality enabled. It provides a bit of security, so you’re not bombarded with ICQ veterans that are frothing over new stalker technology.
I figure we, as humans like things to be easy. In addition to that, we like things to be fast and to-the-point. Who wants to be waiting around in shop queues waiting for a fitting room when you can click and buy online in a nanosecond? Who wants to bother to flip through pages in a book when you can ‘google it’?
So that is what Tinder is, to me. A faster, easier, more to-the-point dating application than anything we’ve ever been accustomed to. Sure, the whole showing of mutual friends element is cool. It’s like an instant conversation starter, as well as a bit of security, so you can probe your mutual buddy about your prospective ‘someone’ to check that they’re not a serial killer or into S&M or drug trafficking etc.
Off the back of ‘rate or hate sites’ the whole Tinder concept is based on looks and looks alone. Some of you may shriek at the shallowness of that concept, but the fact is, to the people that use that app most, it cuts out a lot of the bullshit and the time wasting. This in itself is a hoot and a half, as many friends of mine simply don’t even want to find a match. They believe that the endless swiping through prospective matches is a far more amusing activity than actually dating – or finding ‘the one’ could ever be.
So what is Tinder about? Finding the one, or the fun involved in ‘finding the one’?
What are your views on Tinder?
Would you ever use the app? Or do you prefer an app that lets you engage with someone before judging just off their looks alone?