By Lisanne Cheizoo
Business Manager
Tired of being alone? Looking for someone to share your lonely whiskey nights with? Or are you just looking for a one time hook up, but are unable to find anyone who wants the same? Well, stop worrying, for the Internet has once again provided the answer to all of your troubles. This time not in the form of (bad) fan fiction, or Jimmy Fallon’s #whyI’msingle tweets, but in the form of a brand new app: Tinder.
At this point, you have probably already heard of this app before. One of your housemates has probably installed it, or a friend’s Facebook has conveniently allowed you to see that he/she connected it with Tinder. But what exactly is it? A dating app, yes. But how does it work? Tinder allows you to connect your Facebook and current location to a list of other Tinder users around you. You can adjust which gender you prefer, which age group (Tinder only allows people younger than 50) and within which radius you would like to meet your future date.
After you have set your preferences, the inspection can begin. You get pictures of a man (or woman), their age, and the distance between your and their current location, and any commonly shared interests or friends through Facebook. After looking at these things, you can decide with a swipe whether to “approve” or “disapprove”. If you liked or approved them and they did the same, the tinder has become a flame and you can start chatting with each other.
Interesting concept, but does it work? After a hall mate had installed it, I got curious as well. So yes, I downloaded Tinder. I chose my pictures (you can only chose from your Facebook profile pictures) and it was on. First person, Mick, 23, 45 miles away. Shared interests: Abercrombie & Fitch and Starbucks. Mwah, not impressed by this first guy, so I swipe to the right (disapprove). Second person: Jeroen. 21 years old, tagline “up all night to get lucky”. I decide to approve, and before I realize what happened I am in a chat session with Jeroen, 21 years old. First thing he asks me “hey babe, what’s your number?”. I blocked Jeroen before he could write more. Having learnt from this, I begin to swipe through people more rapidly, becoming more selective. A picture of his abs? Too macho, disapprove. A picture of his dog? Cute, approve. A selfie? Disapprove immediately. The effortless swiping between potential lovers is addicting and soon I find myself Tindering everywhere: during my Literature class, in the line at A Domani, while doing groceries. I end up approving quite some seemingly nice people: A guy from Flanders, whose main interests are Baz Luhrmann movies and Literature (score!), a guy from Rotterdam whose dream is to travel the world. Very nice and all, but right now it feels as if I have acquired a dozen or so pen palls, not potential dates, as most of them do not live in Zeeland and most of the conversation do not go beyond a basic level.
After a week, I gave up. Tinder might be great to have fun with for an evening, but I personally found it too much of a meat market, and less a dating app. It taps into the most basic form of attraction: looks. Whether we want to admit it or not, Tinder is all about judging each other on looks. Of course this is not necessarily a bad thing; we judge people on their appearances all the time, and instead of judging the guys in the bar, you can now do so when lazily lying on the couch. Moreover, it can lead to very interesting conversation and ultimately, I believe it can lead to very nice dates as well.
The key to all of this is to not stick to just chatting, but to actually meet up with someone and have a coffee. And that’s the difficult thing: Tinder does not require you to really think things through, and for all I know you might have “disapproved” the future love of your life. You never know. Tinder is certainly a new and interesting initiative in the world of dating, but only for some people, and I was not among those people. Although the one date I had was pretty great.
Lisanne Cheizoo, class of 2015, is a Literature and Theatre & Media Studies major from Uden, The Netherlands.
