My Tinder Experience

Hey guys,

This week I did something I thought I would never do and that is download Tinder.  Tinder has been a hot topic for a while now and with more and more of my friends using it I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I have always been curious about dating apps and have been very skeptical of their results. This week I decided I wanted to try some out for myself and let you guys in on my findings. So for strictly research purposes I downloaded Tinder, SKOUT, and Badoo, three fairly popular dating apps. I wanted to compare how each app worked and what the people using them were like. After debating if I really wanted to go through with this I finally set up my profiles. 

Let's begin with SKOUT:

SKOUT's slogan is "Meet, Chat, Friend" and claims to be a "global network for meeting people." Basically, you set up a profile that includes your name, age, a picture of yourself and the city in which you live. What I don't like about this app is that you can't set up any controls on who can see your profile or who can send you messages you so you get a lot of old creepy men sending you messages from all over the world. It is also pretty hard to look at peoples profiles on this app so I mostly just waited for people to message me. Another annoying thing about this app is that it is full of ads and I was always clicking on them by accident. The one kind of cool thing about this app is that they have a "shake" feature where you shake your phone and it connects you to someone around the world to chat with. I had some interesting conversations about life with people from India, Russia, Germany, Winnipeg, and Alaska. Overall, I would say that this app isn't really for meeting up with people in your area, it is more about trying to get nudes or having a short lived conversation with someone half way around the world. 

That being said, I did find someone who was my age, lives where I go to school, and was actually pretty cute. To my surprise, we had a really enjoyable conversation that led to me breaking a rule I had set up before I got the app which was 'no outside of app contact'. We ended up snapchatting and texting for about a week until I found out that homeboy had a girlfriend so that was the end of that. 

Here are some examples of interactions I had while using SKOUT: 

Ready for some pickup lines?

Check out these quality conversations!

Next I tried out Badoo:Badoo's slogan is "Meet New People, Chat, Socialize". They claim to be "the best app for chatting and meeting new people." Just like SKOUT you set up a profile with your name, age, a picture of yourself, and the city in which you live. This app also doesn't allow you to filter who can message you, or who can see your profile so again you get a lot of old creepy men sending you messages from around the world. This app has a Tinder like feature where you can look through profiles and decide to 'match' them. Matching with someone doesn't really mean anything though because as I said before anyone can send you a message regardless if you 'match' with them or not.I wouldn't say that this app would be particularly good if you actually wanted to go on a date with someone or meet them in person. I didn't come across one person who had actually met someone on this app. I also met very few people who even wanted to have a conversation let alone keep one going. I'd say this app is more for creepy late night sexting with strangers.Here are some examples of interactions I had while on Badoo:Ready for even more pickup lines?

Some of the many fun messages I received:

Last but not least, let's talk about Tinder:

Tinder claims to be "a fun way to connect with new and interesting people around you." Since Tinder was released it has gotten the rep as a "hookup" app. I wanted to see if the majority of the people felt the same way or if they actually wanted to form some kind of a relationship with someone.

To create your profile you just connect to your Facebook and pick and choose which pictures you want to share with Tinder. Tinder also grabs your name, age and whatever pages you liked in 7th grade and shows them as your 'interests'. What I love most about Tinder compared to the other apps is that you can filter out who can see your profile by choosing an age range and a location range. Then from there, only the people you match with can send you messages. I'm not going to lie, swiping left to say no to someone or swiping right to say yes can be kind of fun, it really does kind of become like playing a game. The problem is you can get really into swiping left and really easily swipe no to someone you really wanted to match with. This happened to me many times. But when you do match with someone the conversations can be fairly interesting. They are a lot more toned down and you don't get as many creepy/ strange messages you get with the other apps because you get to chose who can contact you. The only other problem I have with Tinder is that you are bound to run into people you know from high school and even some friends. What I quickly learned was that there is kind of a protocol for when you run into friends on Tinder. First you swipe right, then you proceed to send them funny pickup lines. At least that's what my friends seem to do. People from my high school that i'm not friends with on the other hand, I just swiped left and went on doing my thing. I figure we are both here on this app so they can't judge me for using it when they are too.

There really are some cool people on Tinder. I had some pretty rad conversations with people about music, life, school, and of course Netflix. A lot of my matches were also really open to telling me about their past Tinder experiences. One of my matches named Connor told me that he once went on a date with someone he met on Tinder. He said his initial date was awkward for about 20 seconds and then everything went smoothly after that. Their Tinder date went so well in fact that it led to them hooking up for the next 7 weeks! Another match named Sean told me that he too has been on several Tinder dates with one leading to a hookup. Sean did mention though that he was not looking for a relationship with any of these girls and that he uses Tinder strictly to hookup with people. On the other hand, one of my matches named Matthew said he is not looking for someone to hookup with and that he genuinely wants a relationship. When I asked him how that was going for him he replied "it seems like the girls that want one (a relationship) on here are few and far between." He also mentioned that his hope for finding a girlfriend on Tinder is slowly fading and that he is getting pretty fed up with the app.

After chatting up my matches a little bit I asked them to help me come up with a bio for my profile. I took a little piece from each and this is what we came up with: "I'm pretty chatty & love to ask uncomfortable questions. I like indie music and bad reality TV. I also have a terrible sense of humour and are really bad at bios." Obviously my matches really enjoyed talking to me.

The next thing I want to discuss is Tinder profiles. When you swipe through tinder long enough you realize that so many of the guys pictures are exactly the same. I found that guys profiles are a lot like bad country songs, they include a whole lot of beer, trucks & hot girls.

I also just want to mention that I have never seen so many big fish in my life. Can someone please explain to me what this is about? Does anyone look at a guy holding a big fish and think to their self "oh wow that's so hot"? In my opinion they are just using the big fish to over compensate for something else that's not so big if you know what I mean.
Here are just some, yes there were more, profiles I came across with guys and their big fishes:

Some other honourable mentions are the classic douchey, shirtless mirror pics and guys smoking something.

While so many of the profiles started to blend together there was one guy who stood out. If having a creative Tinder profile was a competition this guy would win all the awards. 

From his profile picture down to his bio you can tell this guy just wins at life.

Not to brag or anything, but we did match & he is just as funny, if not more, when you talk to him. If you are on Tinder and ever happen to come across Colton's profile tell him he's the best!

CONCLUSION:

After extensive research I have decided that these apps are not a good way to meet people if you are looking for a relationship. Is anyone surprised? No. If you happen to be looking for someone to hookup with then Tinder might work for you. In all seriousness, the minute I am done writing this post I am deleting SKOUT and Badoo off my phone and I am never using them again. They thoroughly sketched me out and I have no desire to use them ever again. Tinder, on the other hand, was much more enjoyable to use so I may use it again in the future when i'm bored. As of right now, I am going to take a break from dating apps. It is actually very exhausting to try and have interesting conversations with people. It takes a lot of effort and I just don't have the time or energy for that right now. 

Technology really is changing the dating game but I think i'm going to stick to meeting people in the flesh and not through a phone.

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! I know it was a long one so thanks so much if you have made it this far! If you have ever used a dating app I want to hear your stories so feel free to leave them in the comments below! Also if you really, really enjoyed reading this and feel like sharing it with all your friends I would not oppose!

-Alisse