Summer is beautiful. It’s a time to relax, recalibrate, and do more of the things you didn’t have time for during the school year: catching up on Netflix, reading, reconnecting with old friends, and creating a small, self-curated portfolio of pictures of yourself that you put on app that allows you to look at other peoples’s small, self-curated portfolio of pictures of themselves, thereupon selecting portfolios that you like in hopes of having a spontaneous and often fruitless conversation with its curator. Yes, summer is for Tinder.

Returning home from the stressful throes of college life and end-of-semester turmoil can induce somewhat of a vegetable state in many, lying on the couch, frozen, haunted by the all-too-fresh sensation of flipping through flash cards and organizing group study guides. This stasis was a recurring feature of break periods following my first couple of semesters at college. That is, of course, until I discovered Tinder.

Now, I don’t usually consider myself the type of person who would typically engage in “Tindery” behavior (vanity, self-aggrandizing bios, pictures that accentuate my firm, yet smooth jaw line, etc.), but there was something about this whole operation that really piqued my interest. Suddenly, all the cute girls that I had seen walking downtown or had passed in the gym and assumed had floated out of my life forever were laid out in front of me on this magical matrix. The world (the 23-mile radius surrounding my bedroom) had opened up to me. The possibilities were endless! (Again, the possibilities ended at approximately 23 miles.) So it was with this new obsession in my gaze that I began my summer.

Unlike a host of other heterosexual, male Tinder users that I have encountered, I do not employ the “indiscriminate right-swiping” strategy. Simply sliding through person after person (on this app full of complete strangers who I will probably never meet) feels impersonal and cold. I like to study each of my potential match’s profiles; really contemplate them. Stephanie, 20, said her favorite emoji is “🐯.” Had I not stopped and dug for further marks of her character, I would I have completely missed this vital piece of information! Sabrina, 18, professed, “i like my music i like my friends, random and crazy.” I happen to hate my music, my friends, am fairly consistent and quite sane — dodged that bullet! Bethany, 19, was “Not your typical Asian man.” Neither am I!

Tinder is a realm of endless wonder, chance encounters, and well practiced skinny-arm. Navigating it can be tough, but if I can leave you with anything, it would be to take the time to really know who you're swiping. Do your homework, kids!