With over 75 million users, Tinder today is one of the most popular and used dating apps worldwide.
Tinder has undoubtedly shifted our practices and views on online dating. Due to that, Tinder stayed strong for 10 years among us.
Back in the days a normal Saturday of dating consisted of fun outdoor activities, people meeting one another, flirting, and fixing their hair when spotting an attractive person out of the blue.
The reality of dating has shifted tremendously if we compare the ‘present Saturday’ to the ‘Saturday of back in the days’.
The present Saturday of dating consists of a person’s drenched attention as they’re swiping left and right hoping for a match that’ll change the flow of their evening or their life even.
When Tinder was built, it had a specific purpose behind its creation: dating.
However, Tinder nowadays is used for many things. Tinder is used for dating, hookups, scamming, swindling, catfishing, cheating, marketing, and so much more.
Starting from people swiping left and right to find the love of their lives to people swiping left and right to find their next buyer Tinder is used for various purposes.
It’s been 10 years and the app has evolved, the number of its users keeps raising, and the algorithms keep shifting and advancing.
A large number of users also puts Tinder exposed to the risk of difficulty to control the mal-intentioned and bullying users.
On the other hand, souls keep uniting, and love keeps flourishing within and through Tinder.
Tackling the basics first, how does a dating app become one of the most popular dating apps in the world?
How did Tinder become one of the most popular dating apps in the world?
Tinder is one of the first dating apps out there. Although Tinder isn’t the first dating app, it is the first dating app to bring an innovative way of finding partners online.
Before Tinder entered the picture, there were other dating sites such as match.com, however, Tinder came up with something so easy and new.
It was the swiping left and right that took a lot of attention. A super easy-to-use app, increasing or decreasing the odds of getting a match is up to how you present yourself.
There’s the combination of the rush of excitement once you get a match and the feel-good hormones released in your brain as you swipe left and right.
It started off as an interestingly embarrassing thing to have the app, Tinder was the ‘just for hookups’ app. Eventually, people started getting married!
Now it has over 70 million users and it’s one of the most popular dating apps in the world.
Tinder does it pretty well compared to the rest of its competition, we’ll give Tinder the credits for that!
It’s the innovative idea, the freshness, the easiness, and the practicality of the app that made it climb up the list of the most used dating apps globally.
Tinder changed the way we approach dating: why did Tinder forever alter the way we approach dating?
What was then a ‘talking stage’ is now a multiple ‘taking stages’ with multiple people at a time.
This is without a doubt a truth of our contemporary reality. Tinder has altered the way we approach dating, the way we practice it, and the way we view it.
10 years of Tinder mark something remarkable in the world of dating. It marks 10 years of easily accessible dating, sex, love, and even danger.
Besides the variety of matches, Tinder gave us plenty of material when it comes to having a variety of stories due to exactly the app.
Those stories from Tinder vary from “I married my Tinder match” to “I got robbed by my Tinder match”
Unfortunately, there have been many documented cases where carelessness and lack of empathy met one another resulting in tragic and fatal endings.
Tinder didn’t shift the mindset of online dating only, no. Tinder shifted the mindset of dating as a whole.
Expressing yourself is a whole lot easier when behind a screen, where your voice isn’t heard and your facial expressions are well hidden and safe from a face-to-face despiteful look.
This leads to dating trends from healthy to exponentially toxic ones. To name a few:
- Ghosting;
- Cookie-jarring;
- Catfishing;
- Kittenfishing;
- Slow-dating;
Ghosting is very damaging, however, it is widely practiced in dating apps. For some, it’s considered ‘the easy way out’.
Vanishing without a warning and not responding back to a person can lead them to experience what we call ‘social abandonment’.
We’re wired to be social and the sense that you’re socializing is a validation itself.
Someone simply disappearing and not responding to our attempts to reach them again sends a bad signal to our primal designed bodies and minds.
Most of the ‘trends’ we’ve been experiencing and exposed to are generally not healthy. And ghosting makes one of these toxic trends. Not caused by Tinder, but practiced widely on the app.
Another concerning issue is catfishing…
Is catfishing on Tinder ever going to stop?
As Tinder claims to have user safety a priority, mal-intentioned people keep finding ways to get into the app.
And this is not a problem for Tinder only.
Tinder bans those who break its rules and don’t follow its community guidelines.
For a lot of other dating apps out there, including Tinder, catfishing seems to be inevitable. This at least for a relatively short term.
Catfishing has been known for its sometimes harmless and sometimes highly damaging results.
Tinder keeps updating its safety measures, making it difficult for these people to fulfill their goals, yet they manage to succeed.
It is an ongoing challenge to society and a challenge to the dating world.
Yet, the future of online dating is uncertain. Catfishing might be prevented in the future, however, it is a phenomenon that’s very difficult to get rid of.
Catfishing might stop, but it’s a very uncertain and unrealistically hopeful statement.
Judging from a distance: racism, fatphobia, fetishism, and more
Another immense problem that stems from the ‘safety’ of being behind a screen is the judgemental approach of a lot of people using dating apps.
Since Tinder is one of the most used dating apps out there, this increases the odds of bullying, judging, and berating between users.
Recently we’ve been witnessing the rise of racism, fatphobia, and fetishism of marginalized categories on Tinder.
The happy stories of Tinder often get overshadowed by hurtful ones that a lot of its users experience on a daily basis.
What could look a profile of a potential partner can easily turn into a harasser that berates you based on the way you look, your race, or your sexuality.
Appearance-based comments such as “I’ve always wanted to try a [race-based, color-based, or religion-based name] one!” or “Why are you [race-based, color-based, or religion-based name] even on Tinder?!” are yet another problem that has started rising in recent years.
We don’t exactly know how Tinder is going to tackle this one.
Although users get to report a person, however, it takes a particular number of reports for a user’s profile to be under review to then get banned.
You get the option to report a person or unmatch them, but there’s nothing else much in your hands to do about their harassment or bullying towards you.
This is a very deep issue within society, it is also very difficult to prevent it from occurring, especially on dating apps, including Tinder.
The larger the number of users, the wider the range of variety of people, mindsets, and beliefs.
This makes enough room for people with ingenuine intentions and people to pour their hate on others due to the comfort of not being face to face with the receiver.
This is a highly negative phenomenon happening all over dating apps, not just Tinder.
However, Tinder’s future depends a lot on the way that it treats and approaches this concerning issue.
Scammers and swindlers, are agreeably not the best app experience either!
If you’ve been on Tinder long enough, you might have encountered a scam or two. For some, being scammed on Tinder can be inevitable.
This is yet another negative ‘feature’ of the app.
Of course, Tinder keeps doing its part on preventing unfortunate scamming events from happening, but these are people who know exactly what they’re doing.
It starts off pretty and lovely, then a harsh version of their personality smashes itself into your reality…
It also starts off as an “Oh it can happen to anyone, of course, I’ll send the money!”, then you find yourself in the same position for the fourth or fifth time.
This is often considered a form of catfishing but an altered form of harm and damage.
The larger the number of users, the larger the chances for such phenomena to occur within the app.
What’s up with the She-Hulk Tinder profile?
We’ve heard and seen the buzz about She-Hulk’s profile on Tinder. If you think you’ve got a chance to get a match with her, you might not be wrong.
Although, if you think you’ve got a chance with her, then you’re wrong, dear reader!
Tinder reached a 10-year mark in the market, it could be entirely coincidental, but Disney decided to make an interesting marketing campaign on Tinder.
Essentially, Disney created a She-Hulk profile on Tinder who, if lucky enough, you can match with and perhaps get a text, this one:
Keep your expectations low, this is just another one of those very clever advertisements!
You might stumble upon her Tinder profile, but you won’t get more than an “I knew we’d match!” message that continues the advertisement of the She-Hulk movie!
What does the future of dating look like?
Dating has been stable and labile for a long time now. Looking at the bigger picture, dating has started to weigh more on the labile side of the scale recently.
Ever since online dating entered the picture dating hasn’t been the same ever since.
New dating trends emerging, new ideas, new practices, and new views on dating are just one of many factors that resulted from online dating.
Tinder on its own had its large impact on these trends, ideas, practices, and views without a doubt!
We’re aware of the present, Tinder managed to stick around for 10 years. Though what does that say about the future of dating?
The future of dating is headed in a very uncertain direction. Tinder might last for 10 years, or another app or site might take control and attention and shift the dating world entirely once again.
Our approach to dating has shifted a lot since online dating. Thanks to online dating, now dating is easily accessible, though it plays a huge role in our insecurities.
Will there be another app to challenge the presence of online dating?
For a lot of people, Tinder has been a source to feed and enlarge their insecurities…
The flow of the standard narrative has it that requests and issues require solutions.
Seeing the issues and complaints of Tinder’s users, someone might just come up with an idea that’ll excel Tinder’s practices, safety, and pattern.
Tinder did indeed challenge the presence of online dating. It is very likely that another app will eventually manage to challenge the current presence of online dating.
Perhaps something safer, peaceful, freer, and even easier than Tinder already is.
Whether that app might appear someday or not it’s uncertain but very likely to happen.
Until then, the future of dating is very uncertain as people continue using dating apps to date whether they like it or not.
Something or someone might happen to our presence that’ll alter the reality of dating forever, just like dating apps did once.
Happy 10 years of Tinder!
Looking for detailed expert comments on Tinder and the future of dating?
I’ve been a dating expert for quite a while, and I’ve been around enough to witness dating trends come and go.
My advice has been featured on Business Insider, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, and many more informative mediums.
If you’re looking for detailed expert comments on Tinder and what the future of dating awaits for us, feel free to contact me at info@datingzest.com.
Take care,
Liam Barnett
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