Be My Tinderella?

Swipe left, swipe right, swipe left, swipe right… Congratulations! You have 1 new match! 

Ever wanted the social life of being at a bar and flirting with countless attractive people from the comfort of your own bedroom?Well now you can with Tinder. Tinder is a dating app which uses your Facebook account and GPS location to search for others within proximity to you. On your profile you have; up to six photos (only your best ones), a small section to write something witty (if anyone asks, we met in a bar),  your age and Likes from Facebook. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to go!

When you ‘play,’ you are presented with pictures of people in your surrounding area and you can either swipe left if you’re not interested, or right if you think they’re attractive. If someone likes you back, then you are ‘matched’ where you can then privately chat. Just sit back, relax and watch all the strange, boring, generic, quirky and cute messages flood in.

Although Tinder was created late 2012 by at the University of Southern California , the  craze  captured audiences on a global level during 2013. With CEO, Sean Rad, not disclosing the amount of registered users, he has announced that Tinder has generated over 1billion matches worldwide (Ha, 14/03/14). There is approximately 10-20 thousand daily downloads and 60% of users checking it daily. With a unique approach to online dating, redefining our thoughts on casual sex and relationships(Bosker, 04/09/13). 

Social media apps, like Tinder are addictive, because of the rush of dopamine that is chemically released from your brain when you receive a like, comment or new notification (Weinschenk 11/09/12), thus fuelling the Tinder flame which has dominated the world. However, we’re constantly looking for a new craze, raising the question of how long Tinders success can last? The newest development is verified celebrity accounts, giving us mortals the opportunity to be matched celebrities within a 159km radius (Kleinman, 12/03/14). Tinder doesn’t really allow for much more development because of its simplicity and basic functioning, and eventually the craze will die, only to be replaced with something else for us prosumers to dive at.

Tinder has revolutionised the way in which we engage with others in a sexual/romantic way, allowing people to meet new and exciting, maybe a little creepy, people, boosts self confidence among users and allows people to fulfil certain needs and desires. Until the almost guaranteed extinguish of the Tinder Flame, keep on swiping.

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 – Ha, Tech Crunch, 14/03/14, accessed 15/03/14, http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/13/tinder-1-billion-matches/

 – Bosker, The Huffington Post, “Why Tinder Has Us Addicted, 04/09/13, accessed 13/03/14, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/tinder-dating-app_n_3044472.html

– Weinshenk, Ph.D in Brain Wise, Psychology Today,  11/09/12, accessed 14/03/14, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/why-were-all-addicted-texts-twitter-and-google

 – Kleinman, The Huffington Post, 12/03/14, accessed 15/03/14, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/12/tinder-celebrities_n_4948249.html?&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

 – Prosumers – “a consumer who becomes involved with designing or customizing products for their own needs” https://www.google.com.au/search? =define+prosumer&oq=define+prosumer&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.1950j0j4&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

– Julia Naughton, Tinder Takeover, Cosmopolitan, http://www.cosmopolitan.com.au/relationships/relationship-advice/2013/10/tinder-takeover/,  written 21/10/13, accessed 14/03/14

– Caroline Kent, Tinder Review : a woman’s perspective, The Telegraph, accessed 20/04/14 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/relationships/10317832/Tinder-review-a-womans-perspective.html