My First 12 Hours on Tinder

Sometimes when you're curious about something, you just gotta do it.

Like that one time when I wondered if it would be socially unacceptable to take pics in a photo booth by myself....so I felt compelled to go ahead and do it. (Evidence.) (Please don't quote me on my curiosity logic and use it as a reason to try drugs or criminal activity.)

I've had a similar approach to Tinder. Don't know what it is? It's like online dating....but it's an app. Basically, you scroll through pictures of people in the gender/age-range/proximity of your choosing, and you swipe right if you like them, left if you don't. Sound shallow? Well...it's what we do in real life anyway when we scan a crowd.

After my first (brief) foray into technological dating a couple years ago, I kind of swore it off.

I've had friends get married from online dating, but I'm not sure the cyber-introductions are for me, even if it's really not so different than meeting someone at a party or on the train or whatever, in the end. But after evvvverrrryyyyone I knew started using Tinder (and reporting good/benign things, mostly), that gnawing curiosity took over and...here I am!

Most likely scenario? It'll fascinate me for a week or two and then I'll lose interest like I do with most new apps on my phone. But in the meantime, why not? It's like this cultural phenomenon that I must try.

My reaction thus far:

• Really makes me aware that I only find like 1/40 men attractive. We all have our type, so I'm not totally surprised/ashamed by that. Beards, plaid, hipsters, tacos, good taste in music and 90s TV/movies...bingo! (Tinder tells you if you have any Facebook interests or friends in common, which is a neat bonus.)
• I'm really not into guys who want to tell me what to do, e.g. "Swipe right, you know you want to." Uh...do I? Maybe. But I might go left just to spite you, bossypants.
• It really is harmless and less intimidating than other dating sites seem to be. I have mentioned on the ol' blog that I'm a little soured on dating in general right now...but maybe what I need is something less serious to remind me that dating can be fun, so I'll stop choosing Netflix and sneaking-out-side-doors-of-parties over flirting. (Baby steps.)
• You can tell a lot about someone from the types of pictures they choose to post...or so it seems. Makes me wonder what someone would think about me if they didn't know me and just saw my pictures/brief bio. Do I represent myself accurately?
• Poor grammar is a big turnoff for me. (That's no surprise, let's be real.) I mean, we all make mistakes...and I'll probably ironically have a typo somewhere in this post just so the universe can spite me. But...some of us make more mistakes than others. Moving onnnn.
• I'm paranoid I'll match with someone who I end up working with at a future job. Don't get me wrong, it would be hilarious. "Hi, deskmate. I'm glad we find each other attractive." Team unity, right off the bat.
• I get most excited when I see someone I know on there. I want to swipe right just to say hello, even though I could say hello in real life. So maybe I'm missing the point. Shrug?

The funny part for me, still, (and what I expected I would encounter) is that I'm not sure what to do with myself when I match with someone. I'm just not fully sold on the idea that random virtual chatting is for me. I have all these matches sitting in my inbox and only one of them has said anything to me. And now...? Am I supposed to talk first? Or do we just go silently on our way, enjoying the fact that we just validated each other? How does this work?

Basically these are my feelings:

via

...bahaha. Like I said, good adventure. Stories to come, I'm sure.

Do you Tinder?