If you’re reading this blog about dating, then there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Tinder… but for this who haven’t, it’s a mobile app inspired by our (randy) pioneering homosexual cousins who came up with Grindr. Tinder also started life as a hook-up app and follows a model in which one only needs to load up a very simple profile consisting of your pic(s). You are then presented with a never-ending number of pictures of other users that fall within your age-range and distance to “like” (swipe left on your screen) or “don’t like” (swipe right). Other users do likewise, and if two people like each other, then hey presto, it’s a match!
It’s actually become very much a bona fide dating app, with people openly using it and I actually now know of 3 friends who have started relationships from it (and a few horror stories to boot :P ). Not only that, but the simplicity of use and ease of access seems to have reached a much wider audience and allowed for unparalleled growth amongst singletons when compared against the traditional dating websites out there. The entrepreneur in me can only look on in astonishment and envy and wish I’d come up with it!
Starting Up
I heard of Tinder a while back and must now confess that I’ve been using it a tool for Banana Dater to generate some traffic to the blog. Having witnessed the impressive growth, I finally took the plunge and created a profile based on my real identity…
Setting up is dead easy… you log into your Facebook account which Tinder uses as a basis for your profile (first name), and then select a couple of pics to use. I also wrote a few niceties about myself… this was the easy part, since I borrowed a few words from my existing dating account.
I used the best picture I could find of myself (form an orderly queue, girls…), and used this as a serious dating tool, applying the same dating principles that I had tried to follow so far: aged 25-30, prefer BBC or Chinese, unless there’s something really interesting that caught my eye… this being much harder on Tinder, since it’s basically a case of “do you think this person is attractive?”
Left, Left, Left, Left, Right?… No Left, Left, Left, Left, Left…
At some point you have all heard a tale from a friend, or read it somewhere, or at watched a film, in which a pet eats an incredibly valuable item, followed by various shenanigans trying to retrieve said item. One true story that sticks in my mind, is of an ex-colleague from a few years back, whose dog ate an extremely expensive earring belonging to his wife… thus the next 2 days were spent sifting through the dog’s every bowel movement, in order to attempt to find said earring. Well… you can probably guess where this is going, but yes, I would say that using Tinder does feel a lot like sifting through sh*t!
Logging on, you come across all manner of ladies… unlike the dating sites where you can have a say over what you get shown (age, personality, ethnicity, background etc), Tinder does not discriminate beyond age and geography… So you end up swiping left ("don't like!") a lot. In fact, you become a right horrible superficial cad.
Logging on, you come across all manner of ladies… unlike the dating sites where you can have a say over what you get shown (age, personality, ethnicity, background etc), Tinder does not discriminate beyond age and geography… So you end up swiping left ("don't like!") a lot. In fact, you become a right horrible superficial cad.
Becoming A Horrible Superficial Cad
I’m probably going to make some enemies for this, but you end up being incredibly picky over all sorts of tiny things that wouldn’t normally be a problem. If pop onto Tinder now, here’s my next 10 results:
No: I don’t like your flowery shirt/top thingy
No: The picture is just a piece of text, in what I presume is Arabic
No: Pretty, but a ridiculous write-up that includes “YOLO” in there
No: Bizarre sense of style, looks like insane and like a plastic doll (in a bad way)
No: Munter
No: Plain Jane
No: Oh my, she has an enormous grin
No: Ooh, she’s got strange lips
No: I don’t like your flowery shirt/top thingy
No: The picture is just a piece of text, in what I presume is Arabic
No: Pretty, but a ridiculous write-up that includes “YOLO” in there
No: Bizarre sense of style, looks like insane and like a plastic doll (in a bad way)
No: Munter
No: Plain Jane
No: Oh my, she has an enormous grin
No: Ooh, she’s got strange lips
No: Really good looking… aaaannnnd I accidentally swiped left. Sh*t
No: Not my type
No: Wow, you’re great looking… also clearly about 20ft tall
No: Grossly overweight
No: COVERED in tattoos
Yes: Myfawny… hahaha, wicked name. You yes just for such an old school name
Yes: Yeah, she’s totally smoking hawt… miles out of my league, but hey ho
No: Not my type
Ah, I’ve accidentally done more than 10… Well, the worst (best) thing about Tinder is that it’s actually kinda addictive, so it has an almost game like feel to the repetitive left and right-swiping. So yes, I’ve joined the ranks of the horribly superficial… And it is rather fun!
No: Wow, you’re great looking… also clearly about 20ft tall
No: Grossly overweight
No: COVERED in tattoos
Yes: Myfawny… hahaha, wicked name. You yes just for such an old school name
Yes: Yeah, she’s totally smoking hawt… miles out of my league, but hey ho
No: Not my type
Ah, I’ve accidentally done more than 10… Well, the worst (best) thing about Tinder is that it’s actually kinda addictive, so it has an almost game like feel to the repetitive left and right-swiping. So yes, I’ve joined the ranks of the horribly superficial… And it is rather fun!
There… There are BBCs on here?
I’ve been dating for some time now, and those of you who have read before will have a pretty good idea what I’m looking for... So although it is starting to feel like I’ll never find this mysterious magical BBC girl, I continue to live in hope. Reflecting the relative Chinese population in Britain, Chinese girls on Tinder are few and far between, broadly similar to the dating sites I’ve been using. There is, however, one pretty big difference: the Chinese girls on the traditional dating sites are mainly Mainland Chinese girls, whereas Tinder features proportionally more BBCs.
As it happens, I've not been dating much the last few months, as I’ve been horrifically busy both with work and outside of work, and consequently not updated this blog as much as I'd like. This has been compounded by the fact that I’ve pretty much exhausted the supply of people I actually want to get to know from traditional internet dating and a majority of those I’ve started conversations with end up going nowhere because I don’t get round to following up in meaningful way, let alone converting into dates. So, I guess in the meantime, sifting my way through Tinder is the way forward...
As it happens, I've not been dating much the last few months, as I’ve been horrifically busy both with work and outside of work, and consequently not updated this blog as much as I'd like. This has been compounded by the fact that I’ve pretty much exhausted the supply of people I actually want to get to know from traditional internet dating and a majority of those I’ve started conversations with end up going nowhere because I don’t get round to following up in meaningful way, let alone converting into dates. So, I guess in the meantime, sifting my way through Tinder is the way forward...
Now then, I should also tell you conclusion to the story about my ex-colleague and the dog-eaten earring. Having sifted through a number of dog poops... For 2 days... He subsequently found the stray earring... In the laundry basket... Where it had fallen from the table...
Read into that how you will!
Next!
______
