Currently, as I write this article I’m sitting next to my boyfriend of six months, who is sweet and smart and funny (and many, many other things I won’t bore you with) -- and whom I met on Tinder.
We’ve reached a point as a culture where love stories that began on OkCupid or Match.com have become acceptable -- even commonplace -- but Tinder still seems to have some kind of stigma attached. Now, I understand where this opinion of Tinder comes from; it is one of many apps that play a large part in college “hookup culture,” and one simply needs to visit Straight White Boys Texting to see the sad (and hilarious) results of this mindset. But not every Tinder encounter has to end with someone asking if you “wanna trade memes for nudes.”
The amazing thing about Tinder -- any dating app really -- is that it allows people to meet who would never have run into each other otherwise, or who wouldn’t have had the confidence to approach each other without a screen and a couple of miles between them. And it’s not just dating apps that help with that, but texting, Skype, even direct messaging on Twitter or Instagram. The larger our world gets, the more connected we are. For some people (I’m looking at you baby boomers) this interconnectivity is a reason to poke fun at Millennials for our cellphones and blogs and selfies, but I see it as simply another way to experience more than we ever could before. And yes, perhaps part of that experience is using Tinder to go on more first dates than we could ever want.
Now listen, I consider myself a hopeless romantic. I ugly-cry every time Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth in "Pride and Prejudice," and I would be on cloud nine if my life turned into the plot of “Dirty Dancing.” But the thing is, only a few lucky people are ever going to see someone hold a boombox over their heads for them, and even less are going to experience a “meet cute” worthy of a Hollywood production. So why should we sit around waiting for the almost impossible to happen when we could be busy making memories? Dating apps give us that power, the power to eliminate the waiting and skip right to the first date, the first kiss, the first anniversary.
That’s why I’m not ashamed to tell the truth when people ask me how I met my boyfriend. In fact, most people seem more excited than surprised, because our relationship is proof that they can find happiness online too. And while my experience is only one of many, it’s reason enough to try.
