In such a technology rich era, it should not come as a surprise that people are finding love through technology. At Bloomsburg University, that statement also holds true. Many students on BU’s campus have at least tried the dating app Tinder, some with more success than others.
Sophomore Sarah Musheno is one of many students that found themselves in a committed relationship thanks to Tinder. Musheno was asked what her opinion was about the app before and after meeting her boyfriend. She says, “Before I thought it was a stupid app desperate people used to hook up and that no one took it seriously. I did not understand why I continued to use it.” After meeting her boyfriend, Musheno said that she still thought people did not take it seriously but that it can be a good app to find people you would have never met on your own.
Tinder is a location-based social app that simplifies communication between equally interested users, letting matched users chat. Tinder is most commonly used as a dating app, but is also used for other social reasons. Matching between users is based on Facebook and Spotify profiles. Currently it is estimated that there are 50 million Tinder users.
The app was started in September 2012, and just two years later it was recording about one billion “swipes” per day. Tinder is one of the first “swiping apps”, where the user makes a swiping motion to pick between the photos of other users. When a user is interested in another user they swipe right and if they are not, they swipe left on a photo to move on to the next user.
Sean Rad, one of Tinder’s founders, stated that, “No matter who you are, you feel more comfortable approaching somebody if you already know they want you to approach them.” He believed that a “double opt-in” system could be made to possibly ease that stress. Rad has also said that Tinder filled a gap for social sites for meeting strangers, rather than connecting with people they already knew. People join Tinder for many different reasons, despite the creation of the app being to help users navigate the dating world. Some users join Tinder to find friends in a new area, some join to find random hook ups, but some do join the app in order to find the love of their life.
Sophomore Mitchel Thomas is another BU student that found love through Tinder. Thomas said that without Tinder he probably would have met his current girlfriend eventually since back home they only live a couple towns apart, but Tinder helped speed up the process.
People generally think of Tinder as a site that is geared mostly towards hookups and that any serious relationships that result from Tinder are a fluke. According to Jessica Carbino, Tinder’s on-site sociologist who looks over Tinder’s data, more people than ever are committing to relationships thanks to Tinder.
Tinder recently decided to commission its own surveys about relationships called, “Modern Dating Myths.” The first survey consisted of 7,072 Tinder users, ages 18 to 36, and the second survey consisted of 2,502 offline daters, ages 18 to 35.
Many interesting facts were revealed, such as 80 percent of its users are seeking a meaningful relationship. Also, only nine percent of men on Tinder claimed that maintaining a committed relationship was difficult, compared to 30 percent of offline daters. They also report that 35 percent of online daters say, “I love you” within the first three months of being in a relationship, while the number for offline daters is slightly lower at 30 percent.