(The Verge) – eHarmony, JDate, Christian Mingle, WhereBlackPeopleMeet, Plenty of Fish…Just when you thought you’ve heard of it all here comes another one. This one may be the most interesting of them all. Tinder.
Tinder is a free app only available for the iOS. The concept is simple, decide to like or not like a picture. If the liking is mutual, a text box appears “It’s a match: send a message or keep playing.” From here you have the opportunity to talk to your new partner. If you are already creeped out by this app you should stop reading, because it gets worse.
To use this app you must be a member of Facebook and have the Facebook app on your iPhone. When the app tells the user you have to link this app to Facebook it says in parentheses underneath (We promise this won’t show up on your Facebook, and never will). You can use up to five of your Facebook pictures to link to this app. Facebook is mainly needed to show the amount of shared friends and interest between partners, this is their feeble attempt at uncertainty reduction and to show your personality as it also allows an area for a status.
While signing up for this app it asks to use your location settings. The location settings are important to this app. While registering and using Tinder you have the choice to increase or decrease your dating range from a 10 mile radius of you to a 50 mile radius of wherever you are, whenever you would like. With or without matching with a partner, any user can tap on your picture, tell how close they are from you, and the last time they’ve been active on Tinder. Depending the type of person you are it can be rather exciting or intimidating when you see a match as close as 1 mile from you.
This occasion happens more frequently than you would think, especially when living in a college area when people live literally on top of each other in our campus dorms.
One of the most entertaining things on Tinder is seeing who else you know that is on it. Men only see women and women only see men on this app, unless it is your personal choice to switch the sex sliders of the app. I personally have seen over a 100 people I have recognized on Tinder and have liked everyone one of them, as I view this as more social experiment rather than a dating cite.
The official Facebook page of Tinder describes itself as “A mobile app that finds out who likes you nearby, and connects you with them if they are also interested. It’s all anonymous until someone you like, likes you back.” Their tag line is “Find someone you click with.”
The world of Tinder is a no judging, carefree, and cut to the chase type of place. There’s really not even a chance to bull. It’s fun, and meant to be taken at face value (literally).
