Final Feature Story

Anas Mustafa

05/16/18

MCOM 100W

Final Feature/Sidebar

Right or Left, Why We Swipe

Increasing popularity in online dating apps like Tinder has made the once embarrassing way of meeting a partner into a socially accepted norm. 

Orlando Aleman, 25, has been an active user on Tinder because he has been single for awhile and got tired of only having causal hook-ups. 

“The reason I signed up for Tinder was because I was feeling lonely when I broke up with my girlfriend and wanted something to distract me to help me move on,” said Aleman. 

Ever since his break up Aleman has been using Tinder to go on dates and have causal sex with woman. 

“I have been using Tinder for about one year now and I went on dates pretty frequently and I still do,” said Aleman.

“But now I am getting over the need of having casual sex and trying to actually find a partner whom I can establish a long term relationship with,” said Aleman. 

Aleman was introduced to Tinder through searching the internet. 

“I came upon Tinder when I started looking for the best online dating apps,” said Aleman.

According to the scholarly journal, Love me Tinder: Untangling emerging adults’ motivations for using the dating application Tinder, written by Sindy R. Sumter, Laura Vandenbosch, Loes Ligtenberg, Tinder has become the most used dating app with at least 10 million active users a day. 

According to Timmermans, Tinder was initially introduced as a dating app for young adults to find love or new friendships and connect with people but has also been called the hook-up or sex-app. 

Out of curiosity and reading good reviews about it Aleman decided to install the app. 

“At first I didn’t expect anything out of the app because I didn’t know how well it worked so I decided to give it a try,” said Aleman.

Since Aleman had a bad breakup he was completely closed off to the idea of being in a relationship.

“when I started using Tinder I was trying to find something that least resembled a relationship. I wanted to have fun, explore and didn’t want anything long term,” said Aleman. 

According to Timmermans, Tinder is used to look for sexual pleasures by emerging adults because it is easier for them to approach or openly mention it to a girl while chatting without getting nervous.

After using Tinder so frequently it became a habit for Aleman to go on Tinder daily.

“If I am bored and wanted to go on a date I go on Tinder right away to start swiping to see if I get any connections and it is a good time killer,” said Aleman. 

According to journal one, the exploratory factor analysis has shown that 23 percent of the current and former tinder users access the app on a daily basis because it’s a way to kill time while a person is waiting around.

Interacting with a person through Tinder made Aleman feel more comfortable than approaching them in public. 

“I’m really shy and it’s hard for me to read other people and see if they are interested in me too. Having an app that establishes that the other person is interested makes it a lot easier,” said Aleman.

According to Timmermans, it is also used to form real and new connections with others and possibly finding a significant other to establish a serious long term relationship and the sense of commitment.

Aleman is usually hesitant to approach a girl in public because of all the social constraints involved which leads him to be anxious and nervous.

“Using Tinder eases up my anxiety because it makes the initial reaction less stressful when connecting with each other,” said Aleman. 

Going out frequently on dates started to make Aleman realize that he had been spending way too much money on them. 

“The best best date I’ve had was when the girl suggested we ‘Netflix and chill’ because I knew then I didn’t have to spend any money on her,” said Aleman. 

Getting used to the Tinder platform was very simple for Aleman because it only included the swiping system. 

The swiping system allows the person the option to swipe right if interested or left if uninterested. 

“I got used to using Tinder because it all I needed to do was just setup my profile which is asked of you right when you sign up and then the rest was self explanatory, “said Aleman. 

Self-worth has been proven to be a big factor in young adults using Tinder it helps them validate the sexual attractiveness of their appearance and feel better about themselves by getting “matches” notifications from girls or guys.

According to Timmermans, around 20 percent indicated that they used the app less than once a month or had used it only once or twice. 

According to Timmermans, almost 45.5 percent had gone on a real life date after matching on Tinder and 18.6 percent had casual sex on the first date. 

Stephanie Fernandez, 24, life’s changed when she was introduced to Tinder after ending a six- year relationship.

Fernandez signed up for Tinder because her friends recommended it after breaking up with her significant other. 

“After the break up I was devastated and my friends felt really bad seeing me in that state and that’s when they told me I should try out Tinder,” said Fernandez. 

Fernandez has been an active user on Tinder after the break up she went through. 

“I have been using Tinder since October which means that’s about seven months now,” said Fernandez. 

When signing up for Tinder Fernandez was still in the mind set of looking for a long-term relationship to form. 

“I was expecting to establish a relationship with a guy quickly but I just kept on getting disappointed or setting my bars too high so now I just meet people on Tinder with no expectations,” said Fernandez.           

According to Timmermans, thrill of excitement in using Tinder became a main motivation for people trying to seek out sexual pleasure. Men showed a higher motivation for the thrill of having one night stands than women. 

Fernandez knew that the chances of finding a long term relationship were slim because most guys on Tinder are after one night stands. 

“I wasn’t looking for anything serious, at first I was but not anymore, now its more about getting to know the person either physically, emotionally or both,” said Fernandez. 

Ever since installing Tinder Fernandez uses it pretty much everyday to swipe in order to see any potential connections.

“Finding a person I actually want to talk to probably happens two to three times a week,” said Fernandez. 

Tinder has allowed Fernandez to connect with many people to go on dates with because she needed the scar she felt to be healed or forgotten. 

“I go on dates twice or three times in a week depending on how busy I am. I don’t like going through the long texting and introductions every time so I just get straight to the point and ask to hangout,” said Fernandez. 

Out of all the dates Fernandez has been on she never got the feeling of excitement and sense of adventure. 

“The best date I went on was when I snuck in with my Tinder date to a Shark’s season game and the security started following us but we ended up losing them in the crowd,” said Fernandez. 

Fernandez has always had the problem of approaching a person in public because she starts to panic and not know what to say. 

“I feel more comfortable talking through tinder because it avoids any awkward situation since you know on the other person Is looking for the same thing on Tinder,” said Fernandez.

            When Fernandez receives a notification that she has a new connection she immediately puts up a guard wall. 

“A lot of people aren’t trustworthy or honest because they will say they’re not trying to hook up and looking for a long term relationship but that doesn’t seem the case they just try to have a one-night stand, “said Fernandez. 

Getting used to using Tinder wasn’t an issue for Fernandez at all she found it very straightforward. 

“The simplicity of swiping on someone and if we both ‘match’ I can take my time to message the other person,” said Fernandez. 

According to the scholarly journal, To Tinder or not to Tinder, that’s the question: An individual differences perspective to Tinder use and motives, written by Elisabeth Timmermans and Elien De Caluwe, it looks into the Big Five personality traits. 

In the article by Timmermans, these traits such as seeking relationship, causal sex, friendships, seeking entertainment and ego boosting are all traits being studied to understand the differences between single Tinder users and singles who have never used it. 

According to Timmermans article, a recent study has proven that casual sex was the least motive for emerging adults to use Tinder.  It was used mostly for entertainment purposes to get that satisfaction feeling of receiving a notification when “matching” with a person on Tinder. 

According to Timmermans, to compare the experiences between Tinder users with single non users they included only emerging adults who are active users. In total, 502 respondents remained in the dataset if which 58.8 percent are females between the ages of 18-29 years old. 378 singles were currently using Tinder and 124 people weren’t and 70.3 percent were students. 

Morgan Webster, 23, majoring in environmental science discovered Tinder from listening to all her guy friends talk about the various dates they went on.

“I signed up for it because I was newly single, looking for distractions and because I was slightly bored or uninterested with many others in my life,” said Webster. 

According to Timmermans, individuals with high scores on openness to experience are more likely to use online dating websites for seeking friendships rather than causal sex. 

When Webster decided to join Tinder she wasn’t expecting much out of it because of the type of app it is. 

“I only expected light hearted conversation, the occasional aggressive flirter or creepy man, and maybe meeting someone I liked,” said Webster.

After downloading the app Webster wasn’t certain whether she was looking for a relationship or not.

“Using Tinder was more of a distraction for me to move on from my past relationship,” said Webster.

Webster became very curious about Tinder when she heard about it from her friends. 

“it interested me because it was my friends told me about the easy platform to connect with people and that’s what I was looking for, an easy way to meet people,” said Webster.

Even though Webster used Tinder a lot for limited time she only went two dates.

“Both dates were with the same guy but afterwards I didn’t really have any interest in continuing any dates with him and I simultaneously lost interest in finding anyone else from the app,” said Webster.

Unlike many others, Webster felt a lot more comfortable approaching people in person rather than on Tinder. 

“it is because I feel like I’m pretty good at reading people, I can get a better understanding from someone in person and you can pick up on body language and vibes much more easily in person,” said Webster. 

“A part of me believes that individuals who use Tinder, use it as a branch to connect with people over the internet because they lack the confidence or social ability to connect with people in person,” said Webster. 

Although Webster didn’t go on many dates from Tinder she conversed with dozens of people which didn’t pose any problems to her.

“My biggest challenge was just finding someone to talk to who I connected with. There are a lot of people on there all looking for different things and finding the nice guy can be hard when you’re going through thousands of people,” said Webster. 

According to Timmermans, young adults who are willing to put themselves out there in order to experience connectivity with another person online were more likely to use Tinder. 

Webster believes that Tinder makes It easy for people to put themselves out there and find “matches” based off attractiveness. 

“You swipe right on individuals you find attractive without having any idea about their personalities. For that reason, I think it is notorious for an easy hookup culture for millennials,” said Webster.

Devansh Khatri, 24, stumbled upon Tinder when his friends mentioned it to him. 

“I signed up for Tinder because I was having a hard time getting back out on the dating market since my ex left me so this app seemed like the perfect first step to get back in the game,” said Khatri.

When signing up for Tinder Khatri’s expectation was to establish a relationship with someone. 

“I wanted to find someone I can nurture, love, and protect because I believe I have so much to give,” said Khatri. 

Khatri isn’t just looking for a romantic relationship he also wants a good companion to be around with.

“I am hoping to find someone who is cool and would be great to hangout with,” said Khatri. 

For Khatri Tinder has become a means of killing time when he is free and has nothing to do.

“I only use Tinder during my free time or when I am bored at home or just waiting for something,” said Khatri.

Although Khatri enjoys using Tinder he hasn’t been on a single date through the app. 

According to Timmermans, Extravert growing adults don’t relate to the social motives such as relationship seeking and flirting/ social skills but they tend to seek out sexual pleasures as a motive to use Tinder. 

“I never go out on dates from Tinder because nowadays you can never be sure whether the other person is being honest about their looks or what they actually want from you,” said Khatri. 

When Khatri heard about Tinder he was extremely interested in the concept of it. 

“I was curious to try it out because I wanted to see how I would connect with a platform like that,” said Khatri.

Khatri felt that it was easier to communicate on Tinder because of the luxury of hiding behind a screen.

He believed that it is a lot easier to be confident when typing on a keyboard.

“I personally prefer to meet people in person because in that way there is no chance for me to be cat-fished by the other person I am attracted to, “said Khatri.

The only challenge Khatri faced through using Tinder was not matching with the people he wanted to match with. 

Khatri was encouraged to use Tinder often because of its simple and easy system and it was convenient for him.

“All I had to do is go on the app and start swiping left or right,” said Khatri.