Tinder, why not
In times in which we are constantly connected to our own navel, ops, I mean, to our smartphones, apps, computers and Netflix series, nothing better than an appropriate solution for singles: Tinder. The frustration of going out and meeting no one new, since all gazes are fixed on hypnotizing screens, has a solution. At any time, you can open the app and get a match with someone, that is, you get connected to someone you liked and liked you back. Be it due to shyness, to laziness of going out, to tiredness from that frustration, or to living in a society in which we less and less socialize in the real world, why not try it?
For those who don’t know, Tinder is an app for meeting new people online – and probably knowing them in the biblical sense. One sets up preferences of distance, age and gender for the app to suggest pictures with micro self-descriptions of other users. One can either like a user by swiping his pictures with the thumb to the right, or dismiss him by swiping left. The same way as with other dating apps and social media, Tinder opens up the possibility of meeting people with whom one would unlikely get in touch otherwise. Nice people, with common interests, who perhaps frequent other neighbourhoods, just moved to your city, or simply hope to provide new opportunities for their love destiny.
Whether they are really nice, one can only know after the match, by chatting online or meeting personally. Until that moment, what really counts is whether they are good looking – at least in the pictures. Perhaps they are not that good looking, but wrote nice things on their ten lines of self-description. Perhaps they didn’t write a word, but are attractive and have a fit body. Perhaps they don’t have a fit body, but look fun. The list of meticulous criteria and deep reflections behind every swiping goes on and on. Depending on your mood, the selection becomes more or less demanding, swiping more left when disappointed and more right when desperate.
Within a short period, it’s possible to meet much more interesting people on Tinder than in real life. Especially for those working autonomously from home, who don’t spend long times at an education or working environment interacting with colleagues. When you don’t have company for going out on a Friday night and would like to meet new people, Tinder makes your wish come true within minutes. If the handsome interesting guy is not replying, you end up meeting the one with a nice face and intelligent look. You have fun together around the city, but maybe the handsome interesting guy, or that intellectual with weird nose, would correspond more likely to your expectations for a partner. Why not going out with them to check it out?
Those pictures with micro captions beneath turn into plans A, B and C, to be switched and disposed as toilet paper. You only recognize to be doing this once you notice to have become a toilet paper yourself.
The more technology advances and gets sophisticated, the more sophisticated we get with the demands of our navel gazing, and the less with our ways of relating to others. We swipe left and right, up and down, choosing which series to watch, which food to order online, which one of the thousand Facebook friends to contact towards our day’s interests, until we realize, when least expected, that we have become as disposable as every single thing we consume.
Tinder, why not? Give it a try, but beware of swiping left and dismissing the profile containing your own picture.
