“Tinder was originated as a dating app, but we’ve just turned it into a hooking up app,” as quoted by my friend Abhi. Tinder was launched in 2012.
I’ve always heard about Tinder and memes about “swiping right,” but I never knew exactly what it meant. I’ve always been curious about what Tinder consisted of, but never brave enough to try it out. The reason being, I’ve always been scared of being catfished since I have trust issues – not even just trust issues, but I also feel like you can never know who is behind the other screen.
Another reason I never gave it a shot was because I feel like I can find someone in person during my everyday life. I’ve never had a hard time meeting someone. I never date a lot, so it never appealed to me to join.
Disclaimer: Excuse my typos. I suck at texting since I type too fast.
One night in my friends’ room, my friends, who happen to be guys, were talking about it. I was curious about what Tinder looked like since I had never even seen the app. They were laughing and talking about the bios from the girls they got matched with, and then suddenly it hit me! I’ve never tried Tinder because of my bias towards online dating and because I was afraid….
An introvert like me does not date much, therefore I do not need an app like Tinder, since I’m not desperate to start dating. I’m more in the mindset that if it will happen, then it will happen. I don’t need to do anything about it really. So, out of curiosity and a little support from my friends, I decided to give Tinder a try for a week and journal my experience for a research article.
As I set up my Facebook and choose what photos I wanted to use, I then had to come up with a bio. My friends have some funny bios such as… “You can stop searching ladies, because you’ve found the man of your dreams. I am smooth sexy perfection from every angle.”
So, I thought, “Why not be a little different and put something in my bio that Reza wouldn’t say?” I was ready to throw some people off.
My bio read, “Book nerd at heart. Only looking for men interested in STAR WARS. Not interested in hookups. F*ck you.”
Most of this is staying true to myself besides the cussing; I actually put that there thinking I wouldn’t get matched because I low-key did not want to go through with this. But having Star Wars in my bio actually became a big icebreaker and conversation starter for me.
The first day, I kept swiping left as my friends finally told me how I actually had to swipe right on people in order for there to be action on the app. So, the first few days consisted of just trying to figure out the app and then finding my friends so I could playfully match with them as we messaged each other stupid GIFs.
Then the real fun began.
My first encounter with the male species, other than my friends, on Tinder for the first time was someone from St. John’s who wanted to “chill” without even knowing anything about me and saying something very inappropriate to me (my friend helped me get rid of them).
Then, another guy thought my name was “Albanian” and seemed decent looking – except his Instagram seemed very pretentious, so that conversation died out in one day.
As the days kept going, I saw people from campus that were on Tinder and would laugh at the fact that when I saw them on campus, I couldn’t think about anything else but the fact that they are on Tinder. Then, paranoia hit. I didn’t like the fact that guys can recognize me or now know I am on Tinder, especially the ones I didn’t swipe right for. I felt very weird about it. I kept matching people who were not from St. John’s since I didn’t want to have to explain my research to them when I suddently fell off the face of the Earth.
There were some people who I didn’t respond to, while others I found were very interesting, such as this guy who was a fashion intern and a writer. Most of the conversations died out and when guys asked to hang out I ended up ignoring them.
My views on Tinder started to change as I thought of it being a bit addicting – until I met one guy from NYU who was very interesting and kept messaging back and forth (so much to the point that I didn’t swipe right on anyone).
I was content with just talking to him. One guy, who happened to be in my class, was also interesting, but I kept seeing him around Monty’s so I felt weird again.
Now that my week is up, I am glad I gave it a shot. But, like my friend’s definition from above, Tinder really is a hookup app, and it is something I do not want any part of. Other than meeting new friends and seeing crazy characters, Tinder does work and I recommend it for those who are not afraid of online dating.