KAYLA DRAKE | Multimedia Producer
Swipe left. Swipe right.
1.6 billion swipes per day and 20 billion total matches to date.
Tinder has become the average college student’s – male and female alike – guilty pleasure.
A lot of those swipes happen on college campuses because 18-24 year olds are the main demographic, representing 35 percent of users.
The creators Sean Rad and Justin Mateen earned spots on the Forbes 2013 “30 under 30” list after Tinder’s immense growth in popularity. And you know how Rad and Mateen did it? They knocked on the doors of sororities and fraternities in Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County.
A little less than a year after the app’s creation, it had 500,000 organic downloads – mainly from college students spreading the word. Tinder started because people crave connection, but like most inventions – flaws are discovered over time.
Six years after its creation, how has this app affected the dating habits of millennials and younger generations?
Tinder makes dating seems like a game you can play on your smartphone. It attracts 20-somethings because of the convenience and ease of being able to meet people without the discomfort and risk of approaching him or her in person.
Students typically join Tinder because:
- They are lonely and far away from home.
- They are close to home or live at home and are bored.
- They want attention and/or a confidence boost.
- They are looking to hook-up.
Last year LendEDU, an online marketplace for student loans, conducted a survey of about 10,000 students, and 70 percent said they never actually met anyone they matched with.
College is great because you are surrounded by people your age all the time, but college can also give people the illusion that if you’re not talking to anyone something is wrong with you. It’s cool to be single, but weird to be single and not talk to people.
And boom, just like that, Tinder acts like a fairy godmother and solves the issue by providing people to talk to all the time.
We’ve been at school for a week, and already I’ve had four conversations with four different women about Tinder. Three of those women mentioned the “Tinder dates” they planned on going to later in the week.
Do matches on an app deserve the term date?
Is it dignifying to swipe yes or no based on a picture and a paragraph?
Can you hook-up with people with no strings attached?
I want to say no, but those are questions you can chew through this Labor Day weekend.
Chivalry may be dead, but people keep lowering the casket deeper and deeper by using an objectifying app.
I’m not going to call for you to delete the app or go on a social media cleanse. All I’m saying is if you have Tinder, next time you swipe consider the dignity of the people on it – rather than considering it a mindless way to pass time or a fun way to play games with people.
