Whether you’re on Tinder to actually find love, to have a meaningless hook up or because your friends forced you to because it’s fun, there’s a set of no-brainers as to why someone would be a hard pass. Finding great people should not take a large amount of time, but it should be quick and easy to swipe, and conversation should follow right after. It’s just that there shouldn’t be a ton of time spent on questioning which direction to swipe for a person, so here are three reasons why someone should be an automatic left swipe:
1. Shirtless selfies, prom photos, or only having group photos
There are two things that go through my mind when I see a photo of you flexing without a shirt in your bathroom. First, I just want to know why it looks like you’re having an aneurism just by flexing your biceps. Are you looking for a “swolemate,” because I’m looking for someone who will just Netflix, hold the chill and eat pizza with me on a Friday night. Second, it makes you look like a damn near narcissist who would probably insult my couch-potato lifestyle or try to comfort me with some Drake lyrics.
Nothing screams “I’m a child” more than having a prom photo as one of your photos on Tinder. I get it — you downloaded Tinder right when you arrived to college, you have no other photos to put up and the only good photos you have of yourself are from prom. You probably cropped out your date, so you look like you’re available. I mean, I guess it’s useful if you’re finding people your age so that you can slide into DMs of upperclassmen, but the chances are slim if you’re wearing that bright pink vest to match your date.
Lastly, it’s fine if you have a one group photo to prove that you’re in Greek Life or that you have friends, but it becomes a problem when I have to figure out which one you are in that group of friends. It’s not like I can use process of elimination. Swiping on Tinder is fast — realistically, it takes a couple of seconds to a minute to make a decision. If you solely have group photos, you’re asking for way too much work, and that’s an automatic “no” for me. I’d rather not play that game of roulette.
2. Being “self-employed”
Being “self-employed” makes you sound like you’re too good to find a job, or you just don’t want to finish writing out your job description. Unless you’re legitimately running your own legal company or business, you really shouldn’t put “self-employed” down. For me, I can only assume that you’re probably sitting around and doing nothing.
3. No bio or photo
Having nothing is probably the worst idea you could ever have on Tinder. Great, no one can judge you, but no one can base a conversation from this specific profile. Your profile is the basis of a great conversation-starter. I have your name and age, but I don’t know anything about you. I don’t know your story. I don’t want this mystery person contacting me. I’m one of those people that likes to put names to faces, and without a face, there is a slim chance that I would want to talk to you.