Love At First Swipe

How did you meet your significant other? Was it from mutual friends setting you up? Having a class together? Meeting at work? Over your cellphone? In the next couple of years we may see apps like Tinder become the Vetchola in many of our weddings. Everyone knows more than one person that uses Tinder. There has been a trend of young people staying in school longer thus sacrificing the time they have free to go out and meet people. Tinder can be seen as a solution to this problem. It’s a time efficient way to see who’s out there and to possibly meet a partner. Technology has allowed life to be much easier for us in many ways. Dating life is no exception to this! Just imagine rejecting dates from the comfort of your own home! It sells itself and it’s no wonder that Tinder took off and became immensely popular among our youth.

However, dating online does come with stigma. Many people still see dating online as “desperate” or they may ask “Why can’t you find anyone in real life?” Tinder is still real life, people! Why do we put pictures up on Facebook? Why can’t we show print photos to our friends in real life? There is no shame in abating the dating process by going online! Between you and me, I think Tinder is much better than the classified ads your mom shows you in newspapers. Wouldn’t you rather read a witty bio than “male searching for female must be skinny and fair and 20-23?” Setting your age and location requirements at the very beginning can lessen so much future headache! The point is: yes there is a shift from finding people in “real life” to finding people online but this is not a bad thing! The people that are too busy to go out or don’t like the bar or club lifestyles now have the opportunities to meet people too. Apps like Tinder make things easier for introverted people.

Just like dating in real life, Tinder has risks too. The person you’re talking to could be using fake pictures and they also could be way older than they say they are. We have all heard of the term “catfishing” and this is a very real possibility on Tinder. Also it’s easy to become discouraged after you have to swipe left to 50 duds in a row in search of your stud. But let me ask you, when you go into a bar you only notice the girls/guys that you want to talk to. You are figuratively swiping left to all of the other people you don’t even notice. You’re doing the same amount of work without even realizing it.

Meeting someone on Tinder comes with its baggage too. Many couples put their heads together to come up with another way they met just to avoid the awkward stares and uninvited questions. No one wants to hear, “WHAT? You met online?” No one wants to be judged or ridiculed. Finding a friendship that grows into a relationship is often regarded as the ideal way to find a partner but isn’t it more romantic to say you found love at first swipe?