It's Goin Down, I'm Yellin Tinder

How many times has a guy used a passive means of flirting via social media to get your attention? Whether it's a Facebook message or an Instagram like, the wave of online communication available has certainly changed the way that relationships are formed; enter Tinder. The dating (or more so, hook up) app has users upload a few photos and a short tagline with the options of either being liked (through a swipe to the right) or passed on (through a swipe to the left).

On the basis of a few selfies, users deem others in their location worthy or unworthy. When two people like each other's profile, a match is made! How romantic. They are then notified and have the opportunity to begin chatting with each other. More often than not, this will result in elementary style AIM chatting (How r u? U r hot) or an immediate and creepy invite to meet up (At an apartment...stranger danger, hello?!) or a polite but equally weird invitation to the Olive Garden to share the Tour of Italy (God, why!?). 

Is this what dating has come to? We skip the frivoloties and courting process in favor of a half-assed meet up based on convenience (location) and sex appeal? We use an app that screams "I need validation" to have others pass judgment on us based on a measly photo? Tinder is proving more and more that people are unwilling to actually do things the old fashioned way and meet people in person.

Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t a few special ones that use Tinder in hopes of actually cultivating some sort of meaningful relationship, but let’s face the facts. Tinder was designed to meet up and ultimately, hook up, and that’s the reputation the app is stuck with.

To show just how weird dating has become with social media, check out this article. Through a faux Tinder profile manned by two jokesters, a pretty face and “Let’s hang out” message from a complete stranger was enough to lure over 70 men in to a froyo shop on a Friday night for a meet up. (I think the scariest part about this story is that none found it weird that this woman wanted to meet up at a frozen yogurt shop on a Friday night, just saying).

Social media is changing the game. People now care to know zero, zip, zilch about someone before diving in to a hang out. The emphasis these sites place on looks establishes physicality as the primary factor in “pursuing” someone, but a hot body does not a romance make. In the end, social media makes it easy to feel wanted by hundreds yet perpetuates being lazily and blissfully unaware that these digital flings will likely never come to fruition.

Anyway, to all you Tinder enthusiasts out there, today is the day that singles everywhere will be abusing the “swipe to the right” option. Go ahead, feel special. Happy Valentine’s Day!