Tinder matches students locally

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Story by Erin Wesselowski

The once sad and embarrassing process of looking for relationships online has become trendy, quick and downright entertaining for some students thanks to a new application called Tinder.

Tinder essentially is a dating app for college-aged students, but it can also double as a tool for meeting new people unromantically. The app’s slogan is “Tinder, it’s how people meet,” and the purpose is to engage in conversation with people in your vicinity. And what you do after that is up to you.

Created in 2012 by Sean Rad and Justin Mateen, it was targeted toward college campuses. In an interview with Time magazine, the duo jokingly said they came up with the idea because Justin needed to leave his house and meet more women.

Users are shown photos of nearby potential matches and can swipe right to “like” and left for “not interested.” If two users mutually swipe right, they are matched and given the ability to message each other. When the match first occurs, an alert pops up with a prompt to either message them now, or to keep playing. The “keep playing” mantra is what fuels the relationship fire and keeps users interested.

Baker students are no strangers to Tinder and continue to meet through the app. It can be a great tool for students to get to know people from nearby schools such as the University of Kansas and Johnson County Community College.

One student said that matching with other Baker students is “awkward because of the small campus and the fact that a lot of people know each other already.”

Other students are glad to have the opportunity to meet people from the comfort of their own dorm room before interacting in person. This can potentially reduce the awkwardness of finding things to talk about if you already kind of have an idea what the other person’s interests are.

“I like using Tinder because I feel like if something goes wrong, I don’t have to deal with any repercussions because everyone’s expectations for online dating is really low,” an anonymous Baker student said.

Although online dating has become more popular and less secretive on campus thanks to Tinder, students interviewed for this story still preferred that their actual names not be used.

Tinder sets itself apart from other online dating sites because of its promptness and simplicity. Other dating sites can take weeks of waiting to find out your matches, but on Tinder, you can often find out instantaneously if someone is interested in you.

Tinder also receives a lot of criticism for being superficial. While profiles do provide a space to write a short biography, people mainly select matches based on appearances.

In spring of 2014, Olympic snowboarder Jamie Anderson said, “Tinder in the Olympic Village is next level.” This brought a lot of attention to the app. Since then, there have been other celebrity users like Katy Perry, who loves to scroll through the app for giggles, and Lindsay Lohan, who Instagrammed an image of her brother’s Tinder profile with the caption, “Look who I just found on @tinderapp… hey bro.”

Ed Sheeran also revealed that he was offered the first-ever verified Tinder profile, but he declined because it would make him feel too “creepy.”

While it isn’t exactly kissing under the Baker grape arbor, many students are finding relationships online than ever before.