Most people refer to themselves as “Hopeless Romantics.” I personally prefer the term “Hopeful Romantic.” Now when you think of love and romance, the last thing that may cross your mind is Tinder. I’m sure by now you’ve either heard or experienced Tinder’s good, bad and ugly sides. Well here’s my Tinder testimony.
Let me start by explaining what Tinder is (for those few people who may have never heard of it). Tinder is a location-based social discovery app that facilitates communication between mutually interested users, allowing matched users to chat. In basic terms, it’s a dating app where you swipe right on users you like or are attracted to, and swipe left on the ones you don’t like.
Now, the lines of what Tinder is for have been terribly blurred. Some people use it to find quick hook-ups and some use it to actually find someone to actively date. I created my Tinder profile because I saw a commercial about it. Going into it, I was one of those people who thought online dating was kind of weird because you can’t ever be too sure who you’re talking to online. They’ve literally created whole shows about people pretending to be someone else online (Catfish). Anyway, I created and deleted my Tinder profile twice. I had some crazy encounters. I’ll explain two of the most interesting encounters.
During the first wave (the first time I created my profile), I had matched with about 40 guys. Out of those 40, I probably only had real conversations with about 10. One guy, we’ll call him John, turned out to be a pretty cool guy. So we exchanged numbers and we talked like all the time. At this point, I’m really enjoying talking to this guy and I actually can’t believe this Tinder thing is working in my favor. I’m talking about he’s calling me while he’s at work. I’m calling before I go to bed. We’re talking heavy. Still haven’t met in person though. He worked long hours at the plant and our schedules never lined up for us to hang out. I was starting to wonder because you know they say people make time for what they want. Well one day, he completely disappeared. I would text him, no answer. Called him a few times, no answer. Next thing I know, I see a post on Instagram about how much he loves his girl. My guess is that he was on the outs with his girl and decided to make a Tinder to pass the time. Irritated with the whole situation….. I deleted my Tinder.
During the second wave, there was a guy that I matched with and he went to the same college as me. He messaged me and the conversation began. About 7 minutes into the conversation, he decided that God told him I was supposed to be his wife. I was so confused. The same day that we matched, he wanted to come to my house and chill. It was like he was obsessed and he didn’t even know me. He was laying it on thick. I asked him if he approached every girl he attempted to talk to like this and he assured me that he was positive we were going to be together for ever. Needless to say, I deleted the app again. Looking back this situation is kind of funny to me. Dude was really missing a few screws in the head.
Now don’t get me wrong, all my Tinder experiences haven’t been negative. I’ve met some guys that I’m still friends with to this day. And I met my current boyfriend on Tinder. (Hey baby love) I’ve kicked it with a couple guys who were cool people but they just weren’t right for me. I guess it just depends on the situation. Tinder has many different things to offer, from hook ups, to hanging buddies to just cool conversations. It all depends on how you approach the situation. At the end of the day, you just have to be smart and be cautious about it. And know that if it doesn’t work for you, delete the app and move on with life.