WHEN DID ONLINE DATING BECOME FUN?

“It’s called Tinder,” my friend gushed to me over dinner last Tuesday evening. “It’s this new dating game.” 

 I was curious why my girlfriend would be on a dating site since she was currently in a 2 year relationship, but she claimed it was more of something she did for entertainment when bored. “You have to try it out! I’m addicted,” she giggled.

Tinder puts a whole new spin on the dating game. It eliminates the nuisance of having to browse through peoples lengthy bios, and saves you from being bombarded with unwanted email or messages. So, what’s the catch? It’s based solely off of looks! And conveniently it’s an application you can access only on your phone.

Have you ever seen the movie, The Social Network? 

Do you remember how Mark Zuckerberg’s character came up with the idea of Facemash, by comparing two girls side by side and clicking hot or not? 

Well this is basically the concept of Tinder -- minus comparing two different people! Users pick a sexual preference, create a profile, and start playing!

Tinder works strictly through Facebook:

When making your profile it automatically pulls your four most recent profile pictures (you can switch around what profile pictures you want to use if you like), how old you are, and what it says in your about me.

To play it locates local male or females in near distance to you,

and flashes their picture across the screen, where you can pick if you like what you see by clicking on a green heart or if you don’t by clicking on a red x. Then it moves on to the next picture. 

 If you are on the fence on whether someone is cute or not, click on that persons picture to view their 3 other pics, and if you have any mutual Facebook friends and shared interest. 

The nice part? The guy will never find out if you gave him the boot and visa versa. 

The only way he'll know if you said yes is if he said yes to you!

 (Don’t forget -- your face is popping up on guys screens too!) 

And if you did both say yes -- it’s a match! The screen will notify you and ask you if you would like to send a message to that person or keep playing. 

I (of course) immediately downloaded the app to see what all the fuss was about and instantly was just as obsessed as my friend. Aside from the fact that it's just plain fun to look at pics of local guys in the area, it was fun to see who thought I was "hot" as well. 

Being in a relationship myself, I didn't message any of the guys, but the messages I received were hilarious! My favorites include: 

"What's your favorite muppet?" 

"Do you love bacon, because if you don't, don't bother replying." 

And my favorite ... 

"Are you really on tinder at 8pm on a Friday. Wow... Your life must suck!" 

And when I didn't respond the next day he sent : 

"So, how about drinks tonight in the village cutie ?" 

....Um... YEAH RIGHT !

Here's some funny Tinder message attempts I found online: 

How these guys think they can get girls with these awful pick up lines -- I have no idea?! 

But, no fear for the single ladies who really were hoping Tinder would work. 

I happened to get a match with a totally sexy buff 26-year-old who recently graduated from law school. His pictures were perfect -- clean cut (one even had him in a business suit) and none included him with his arms around other girls. We shared intrest of reading, and the TV show 24, and yes he messaged me with a normal "Hey! How are you doing this morning?" 

Sigh...

Alas, I am trying to remain a good girl -- scared that my man would question why I had an account or frightened that one of his friends would come across my profile. So I put my Tinder days to a close.  

Regardless though, I recommend to at least give Tinder a try (single or not) to play for bored laughable fun or in hopes of finally finding love.