The setting of a crowd of people clustered in a single, social setting and searching for a mate is not a new concept—it’s the scene of many twentysomethings’ Friday nights.
But a free dating application called Tinder, which brings that common dating ritual to a phone interface, has steadily gained popularity.
The method is as simple as the app’s aim. Using Facebook to pull user profile pictures, a person’s image appears on a user’s phone. If you like what you see, you swipe right. If you don’t, then you swipe to the left. The pattern continues until one fateful moment when two people like the one another’s pictures and they have an opportunity to share an online conversation.
Android and iPhone users who use the app receive pictures of people in their area, and swipe decisions remain anonymous. The app is comparable to the early days of hotornot.com, which compiled pictures of people and allowed users to judge their attractiveness based simply on their image.
Since its inception last September, Tinder has logged 2.4 billion profile ratings and 21 million matches.
Essentially the app tackles what many humans are afraid of: the shallow reality of denying the advances of someone based upon their physical appearance.
“I think it’s cool how if the other person likes you too it tells you you but if they don’t it’s not going to tell you they rejected you,” said Madison Ricks, senior in audio and speech pathology.
Ricks has only had the app for a couple of days and said she’s still getting acclimated to the process. While she hasn’t received any strange messages via her matches yet, her friend, who suggested she try the app, received some pretty forward responses.
“My friends have gotten people planning out dates and (the other person) hasn’t even talked to them (my friends) before,” Ricks said. “It’s entertaining because people say some weird things.
“That’s the only real thing you have to go off of—just off looks,” she said. “Personally I don’t think anybody on it has taken it seriously. I just think it’s more of a game than actually dating. If you really wanted to do that, I think you would just make a profile and do online dating.”
Amberly Kelley, graduate student in recreation therapy, said she is not surprised by the popularity of the program because of the large amount of social media dating applications on the market.
She said frequent use of such technological avenues is having an impact in how we socialize.
“I think it’s probably good for people who are a little shy and maybe they’ll be more willing to talk to somebody and put themsleves out there in a way that they couldn’t before,” Kelley said. “A lot of our generation is becoming way to dependent on social media and attached to our phones.”
Ricks said the use of social media sites for dating has created a superficial outlook on relationships and inevitably hinders people from connecting to others.
“We instantly go look at Facebook and form our own judgement (on people),” Ricks said. “People already have things figured out before they even meet someone face to face. I don’t think that’s fair.”
