Tinder: A Hook-Up App Women Actually Use
Up until now dating apps, not to be confused with online dating websites, have had a masculine powerful demographic—that is, until Tinder came along.
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This article is from the archive of our playmate .
Up until now dating apps, not to be confused with online dating websites, have had a masculine intense demographic—that is, until Tinder came along. Tinder is the latest in a slew of location based hook-up fucking partner finding apps that use GPS to locate future sex-mates. It’s like Grindr for straight people. But, it’s different than Blendr, the other "Grindr for straight people," and the dozens of others of dating apps out there in one critical aspect: women are actually using it. Tinder’s founders bragged to us about the number of female users when it launched last October, and tho’ they didn’t have fresh numbers, the app has received a lot of vocal approval from women online, including female Fresh York Times tech writer Jenna Wortham, who says "there’s something about Tinder’s ordinary, flirty interface that is undeniably joy." This acceptance might have something to do with the fact that unlike every other hook-up app out there, which were birthed by guys, as Ann Friedman notes in The Fresh Yorker, one of its four founders, Whitney Wolfe, is a woman.
So far hook-up apps haven’t catered to women because they lack certain protections that the XX-demographic likes when meeting potential sexual playmates, argues Friedman: "women want authenticity, privacy, a more managed environment, and a quick path to a safe, effortless offline meeting." Perhaps because of its single female voice, Tinder offers a lot of those things mostly by way of Facebook. The app syncs up with the social network in a "cleverly discreet" way, as Wortham puts it. It uses all the data and information people put into the social network, without broadcasting anything to the rest of the social network. With that, the app "successfully manages to decrease the creepiness of communicating with strangers ten-fold," write two women on NYU Local. Here’s how:
Authenticity: Facebook’s vehemence when it comes to real names and (general) culture of actual identities ensures that what you see is what you get. "It connects through your Facebook so it made me feel a little more secure with the people being real," admitted Her Campus’s Meghan Cramer while reviewing the app. While one could encounter a Catfish situation, it’s a lot less likely because Tinder also uses this Facebook data to link people up with mutual friends. If something suspicious comes up, just ask that mutual friend, who can confirm or deny that they know this is a real-life person.
Privacy: The app accesses all of your Facebook information, something that is "typically a turnoff for people who don’t want to accidentally see the profiles of their colleagues or worry about embarrassing notifications popping up on their Timeline," as Wortham explains But, in exchange for that, it promises not to shamelessly promote itself on your timeline.
A More Managed Environment: The app only lets people who have mutually liked each other (based mostly on their photo) message each other. Meaning: "No more OkCupid troll sending you message after message promising dick pics if you give him your phone number," as NYU Local’s Caroline Hayes and Chelsea Beeler put it. In fact, the photos it chooses to display come up in a more managed way because of its relationship to Facebook. In addition to location, collective interests, friends, and other Facebook things are what determine who you see.
Safe, Effortless, Offline Meeting: Here’s the part that Tinder doesn’t fairly suggest. The location aspect of the app ensures the person is close-by, making meeting up effortless. As for the safety part, that’s a little firmer. Again, the mutual Facebook friend thing makes checking out the person’s credibility a little lighter. Anecdotally, I’ve had friends tell me they’ve met up with people on Tinder in groups at bars, at very first.
People are certainly using the app. 1.Five billion profiles have been rated or ranked, according to Wortham, it has seen 20,000 daily downloads since October and has itself a four starlet rating in the iTunes store. Seventy percent of its matches have led to talk conversations on the app. After that, it’s unclear where those connections lead. Tinder doesn’t go after up after-that. But, would people keep using the app just to talk with strangers close by? Most likely not. The act of swiping through potential hook-ups might be addictive enough to keep people interested brief term.
This article is from the archive of our playmate The Wire.
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