What does it mean to be romantic, or do something that is romantic?
Dictionary.com defines romance as being “characterized by a preoccupation with love or by the idealizing of love or one’s beloved.”
Basically, romance or being a romantic is all about love, and we, as infatuated young men have many ways to show our love and affection to the lovely girls in our life. We buy flowers, we sing songs, we take her out and buy her dinner, and we really just do anything and everything possible to show the one we love how much she means to us.
Just kidding. We don’t do anything of that. We swipe right and say something along the lines of, “Hey, r u from Jamaica? Cuz u r Jamaican me crazy wit how good u look in ur prof pic! What’s ur address?”
Tinder.
If you ever have any desire to find romance, Tinder is absolutely not the place to go. It is crawling with creepy, arrogant boys who are just looking for an easy one-night stand.
Or at least that is what they tell you…
As of late, Tinder is getting the reputation of being a place where girls go to become victims of college guys who are “creepers” as they bust out their best corny, and sometimes repulsive, pickup lines. But, while this may be the case at times, I do not believe the female Tinder population reserves the right to act so innocent. Allow me to explain.
You, as a female, continually fall victim to swiping right when you see physically appealing males, only for them to ask you if you are wearing space pants in your third profile picture because your ass is out of this world. I get it. It gets old. But why then do you continue swiping right, hoping to find a match with that dude who looks like he should be on an Abercrombie bag?
It’s simple. It’s because the idea of the hook-up intrigues the female as well.
I, in no way, mean this to come off as a negative. I simply mean for it to come off as reality.
That is not to say there is anything wrong with it, as that’s just how it is. Especially in dealing with today’s hook-up culture, the idea of looking for love and lasting relationships and romance struggles to exist among college students, and Tinder personifies that culture.
The main reason for this is the superficiality of the app itself. A person literally sits on their phone, looking at pictures of colleagues of the same age group, swiping right if they like the way they look or left if they don’t. It’s shallow, but that’s how it is.
With how superficial the process of matching with people is, isn’t it obvious that everyone’s, that means both males AND females, initial idea upon looking at a person on the app is, “Can I see myself hooking up with this person?” The answer is undoubtedly yes.
No one files through people on Tinder taking the time to look through their hobbies and interests. No. You see if you enjoy looking at their face, and move on to the next one. If you expect to find your soul mate, your prince charming, or someone who will give you everlasting love, you are definitely in the wrong place. Tinder is shallow, superficial, and our hook-up culture in the form of a free, easy-to-use application.
And I will reiterate the notion that there is no issue and no shame in that being the case. One-time hook-ups are now more prevalent than ever, and Tinder allows for us to have easier access to that hook-up.
That is something we all need to accept at this point. Because the next time Jeff, 21 years of age, from two miles away says to you that he wants to dress up like Batman and Catwoman for the first time you hook-up, know that you probably have the desire to do the same.