I’ve had the Tinder app long enough that I can’t even remember when I got it. I’m embarrassed to admit how many matches I have. I guess that comes with time. I’ve also convinced some of my close friends to join Tinder. It has been entertaining to say the least.
Tinder is the perfect place to practice talking to random people, seeing what flirting techniques work, or being able to send the weirdest and funniest messages for fun. No matter which approach you take, it’s likely that you’ll run up to your friends at some point, shove your phone screen in their face, and show them something that happened on Tinder.
In case you haven’t been exposed to Tinder before, which is unlikely, it’s a very basic system. You view a profile, swipe right (yes) or left (no) based on what you think of them, if you both swipe right then you match up, and a chat between you two will become available.
One of my friends, Vel*, uses Twitter to send the most absurd things she can think of and see what peoples reactions are. She’s one of those people who use Tinder as a joke. It’s amazing what she’s willing to say to people.
Another friend of mine named Rue* joined Tinder at the beginning of the school year. She uses it to flip through people (while mostly swiping left) and just see who’s there. She rarely swipes right and the few times she has did not work out too well for her. One match ended up in her longest class and she ended up being on the same flight as another one. The worst was when she bumped into, and confronted by, a guy she gave the rejection hotline number to. It’s small world sometimes.
One night I went to the library and sat down next to a fellow HC writer. She got up to get coffee, and that’s when the absurd happened. The guy who was sitting on the other side of her leaned over, stuck out his hand, and said “I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced, I’m Scott*.” I still can’t believe that happened.
I’ve also run into Tinder matches while hanging out in other lounges in my building, swiped right as a joke to an RA that helped me when I got locked out of my room (we matched), and saw someone who works the front desk on Tinder as well (we didn’t match).
The worst encounter I’ve ever had would probably be when I was hanging out in the hallway with a friend and a Tinder match who lived down the hall came and sat with us. The next thing I know, our RA is walking past to check the floor and my friend is telling her a made up a story of how I’m dating this Tinder match. I can’t even begin to describe the look on my RA’s face as she tried to not let any emotion show.
No matter how you use Tinder, chances are you’ll find a guy who belongs on straightwhiteboystexting.tumblr.com.
*Names have been changed for privacy.