Can you find Love on Tinder?

By the year 2031, it has been predicted that more than half of relationships will be formed via the power of the internet.

This wouldn’t have been the prediction a few years ago with websites such as eHarmony, Match.com and Plenty of Fish providing the only outlets for online dating.

But with the rise of apps like Tinder, Happn and Lovoo this new way of courting has become much more accessible.

With simple vanity swipes, as opposed to filling out a form where an algorithm decides who would be your potential suitor, the idea of online dating becomes a much less serious sounding affair with many more open to the easy access and casual style of meeting someone new.

Tinder in particular has enjoyed a meteoric rise in membership.

As of November 7, 2015, 9 billion matches have been made by Tinder with 1.6 billion swipes every day. 26 million matches have been made every day and the app is active in 196 countries.

Even though, judging by numbers, the old dating sites are still more popular to the general populous over time this tide will undoubtedly shift in favour of apps.

The largest age block in Tinder is the 25-34 year old group, and the second largest is the 18-24 year olds; knowing this it is very easy to foresee the dating world that has been predicted.

This generation will continue to use the app and its ways will almost certainly be passed down to the next generation as well; online dating on apps will be boosted to gargantuan levels.

The beauty of Tinder is that you can get anything you want out of it

Whether you’re after a one night stand, a steady, or a relationship, all are attainable using the app; it all depends on you.

Dating someone off of a dating app is no different from dating someone you met at a Starbucks as you both went to grab that pumpkin spice latte.

If you and your match sleep together on a first date the likelihood is that this experience will be restricted to a one night stand or friends with benefits situation at best.

But if you both abide by the three date rule then there is more chance of a relationship occurring. Nothing new here.

22-year old Rajdeep says: “I matched with this girl on Tinder and we decided to meet for drinks one evening.

“She asked me if I was looking for a relationship and I was very honest with her; I told her that I wasn’t at the time because I was potentially moving to a different city.

“So, ideally I was after something more casual. She said she was looking for something a bit more substantial so, in my head, I thought the rest of the evening was just going to be a friendly drink between strangers.

“But at the end of the date she asked me if I wanted to come back to her place (as corny as that sounds) for champagne to which I said … yes. And that was a Tinder one night stand.”

25 year old Jairam adds: “I met this girl on Tinder last year and we texted for about 2-3 weeks before going on our first date.

“The outing entailed dinner at Zizzi’s then a cinema trip to watch Captain America: Winter Soldier even though she hadn’t seen the first one.

“Throughout the date she repeatedly kept going to the toilet and I found out almost a year later that she vomited all the way through our date!

“In hindsight I probably should have stopped trying to feed her popcorn. A few more dates including a second date of ‘takeaway and chill’ and a trip to Llandudno for the third.

“A month after we started seeing each other we became official and stayed together for just over a year and three months; it was only after I moved back home long distance made things difficult and we decided to break up.”

Pros of using Tinder

Tinder gives you an outlet to not make stupid decisions i.e. not bonking your friends and colleagues.

This is a temptation many fall into at all ages and never ends well; it always leads to awkward situations and, sometimes, losing people you really care about.

Regardless of the outcome, what Tinder provides are experiences with people that you probably would not have talked to, let alone dated, in a parallel universe where the app has never been invented.

It’s dating without leaving the comfort of your duvet day Netflix marathon.

You can be watching how much of a cold hearted viper Piper becomes, or see a blind lawyer beat up a hulking bald guy with mommy issues whilst attempting to charm the pants off Mr or Mrs Right.

And what would you be doing otherwise? For those of you happy doing your own thing, that’s fair enough.

But if you’re looking for the special person be it for a night or for life as opposed to wallowing in self-pity, dating apps are a great way to counteract the, sometimes, crippling loneliness that is adulthood.

Social Stigmas that still surround Tinder

A frequent Tinder date conversation is how are we going to tell people we met?

Some users feel they have to conjure a romantic tale akin to 10 Things I Hate About You to tell family and friends yet others may say: “Oh, we just met on a night out.”

Is meeting someone in a euphoric drunken escapade a better story to tell family and friends than the truth that you met this person on a dating app?

Surely, meeting someone over the Internet, when you have full control of all your faculties and you’re engaging in witty repartee, is a preferable story than an exchange of oral bodily fluids on a Popworld dancefloor?

A lot of the older generation believe safety is an issue when using apps like Tinder, especially for girls, as meeting a complete stranger is very dangerous in their eyes.

But how is this different from going on a date with the pumpkin skin latte guy?

It’s still meeting up with a relative stranger whom you know very little about. In fact, on Tinder you will probably know much more about your date as you, usually, chat for a much longer period before the date happens and there is nothing wrong with a cheeky Facebook stalk these days.

The final stigma of Tinder is that it is just used as a tool for casual sex. Tinder CEO Sean Rad said at the Web Summit conference in Dublin:

“We just conducted a survey of over 300,000 of our users. What we found was over 80 per cent of people on Tinder are there to find a long-term relationship.”

Therefore, the hookup culture of dating apps may not be as prevalent as many perceive it be.

Tinder is, unquestionably, a more efficient way of meeting new people and forming connections; it is your actions regarding that connection will determine its trajectory.

Whatever you’re after, be it a fling or something more meaningful, the power to bring about your desired outcome is in your thumbs.