For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past five years, Tinder is an online dating site that has risen to great popularity. Since its launch in 2012, there have been an estimated 50 million users and 10 million daily users.
Its basic premise revolves around the act of “swiping” through profiles that can include 6 pictures and a bio. Swiping right means you’re interested, swiping left means you’re not. If two people swipe right on each other, a magical portal is opened that allows them to message one another. Amazing. Now let’s get into all the reasons why this is the worst app to ever exist.
1. SEXISM!
Misogyny is alive and well on Tinder, my friends. A recent study found that 57% of women have reported being harassed on an online dating platform, compared to 21% of men. Men harass women online for the same reasons they harass them in everyday life.
We live in a heteropatriarchal society that teaches men that they are entitled to women’s time, bodies, work, and lives. Tinder provides an online platform for people to hide behind phone screens with their misogyny, which only makes it easier. When women ignore messages or simply say no, men often respond with either more aggression or immediately unmatching them. Fun!
2. Seeing people around campus that you’ve matched with.
Say you’re at a sporting event, the library, or just walking to class. Suddenly you see someone oddly familiar... you make eye contact and then you realize... you’ve matched on Tinder. You both immediately avert your eyes and walk full speed in the opposite direction. Your heart is racing because the internet bubble has just been shattered!
Your Tinder match is a real person! Okay, this might be overdramatized, but it’s not entirely wrong. Especially at a small school like mine, you probably won’t make it through a day without seeing someone that you’ve matched with. Tread carefully, and maybe set your distance to 30-50 miles.
3. It's all surface level.
It is literally impossible to tell anything about a person based on the tiny profile that Tinder has to offer. Someone with the worst profile in the world could be the best person in real life, and vice versa.
4. It's a huge blow to self-confidence.
You FINALLY find a profile that is absolutely perfect. They’re studying environmental law at Harvard so they can save the world. They love James Bay. They’re politically aware. Their pictures show them hiking the Appalachians and cuddling with cats.
You immediately swipe right and eagerly await the “it’s a match!” symbol to appear, just to be disappointed by the bitter silence of absolutely nothing. Thank you, Tinder, for confirming that perfect people online don’t want to match with me. That’s just what I needed while I stuff my face with ice cream and watch the Bachelor.
5. THEY DON’T LOOK LIKE THEIR PICTURES.
If you’re going to be using Tinder for real purposes (as opposed to just messing with strangers by sending funny gifs and messages) you might as well completely lower your expectations now. Obviously, people are going to choose the six best pictures ever taken of them to include on their profiles. I mean, who wouldn’t?
There’s a strong possibility that they look nothing like this, and more importantly, that their personality won’t be what it seems to be through your messages! Getting to know someone online makes it so much more awkward when you actually meet them, and even if you get along well online, your connection could be like a wet pile of leaves in real life.
6. Too many options is not always better.
Now, I don’t claim to know much about humans and their brains, but it seems like if you’re swiping through hundreds of faces a day, the relationship world starts to feel like your oyster. In theory, this is great - fall in love with a few clicks, right? WRONG. Studies have shown that when people are exposed to a high volume of romantic possibilities, their approach to dating completely changes.
When you have so many options, it can very easily become exhausting trying to make a connection with them. More often than not, the “connections” you make online either fade out, or you meet up with them and it’s horrible. But even if it goes well, how do you know there’s not something better out there?
You have hundreds of more matches waiting for you on your phone - what if the love of your life is in there somewhere!? Gone are the days of marrying your next door neighbor and calling it a life. People are thirstier than ever for their soulmates, and will often go to great (and sometimes destructive) lengths to find them.
Okay, so we’ve all come to the conclusion that Tinder sucks. But if it sucks so much, why do we still use it? Why do we constantly delete the app just to re-open it, complain about it to our friends just to get on it later, and continue to wallow in our shallowness?
Why do we still swipe??? Well let me tell you, friends. We are humans who crave attention and validation, even if it’s from a dude who lives 50 miles away and has a personality more boring than rice cakes. Happy swiping.
